Anything For a Friend
by Shelby the Hedgehog
Summary: A human teen turned mobian fox is alone on an island after running away but finds someone just like him and things get better. But will Levi and his new friends be able to get back home to Earth and what exactly is going on? R&R plz
1. Prologue

A/N: This is for my friend Shippo's Ramen, he owns Levi and I own Shelby.

**Anything For a Friend**

(Levi)

"Well, here we are," Shelby-chan said as she gestured to the small house at the end of the dirt path.

It was a modest two story building that was painted tan and brown with a green roof, somewhat blending it into the forest surrounding it. A flowerbed surrounded the house at the base except for where the path lead to the front door and at the garage door both of which were closed.

"C'mon, the others are probably either somewhere inside or in the forest somewhere," Shelby said as she grabbed my wrist and began leading me to the front door. I tried not to trip over my own feet as she lead the way with her choa, Mei, flying just ahead of us. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself let me go back to earlier this morning, when this whole thing began.

_About six or seven hours earlier…_

I sadly dragged my two tails in the dirt. Why did I end up in this mess? One day I'm a human teenage runaway and now I'm, as the locals called me, a freak of nature, a demon and so on. I guess they had heard of kitsunes because of how they reacted towards my second tail. Now, I was the mockery of the island. The adults always told me to leave places like the park and stores and the kids and teenagers made me the target of bullying and teasing.

I had taken to the forest for protection and a place to hide. It was better than sleeping out in the streets where I could be spotted and be discriminated. Plus it had a big supply of wild berries so it gave me a somewhat decent food supply, at least for a while. The berries were sweet and tangy and very different from the ramen that I loved so much but it was better than nothing. At least it satisfied my high metabolism for a few hours.

On this particular day however, I felt like I couldn't eat anything, or rather, my stomach wouldn't let me. A group teenagers, all of them older than me, had gone on the attack and one of them kicked me in said area so it hurt too much for me to even think about eating anything any time soon.

"I wonder what everyone back home is doing right now," I muttered to myself.

They were probably all worried about me, but I had my reason for running away. I was a little bit happy to actually be on Mobius, that way they would never find me but now I was constantly being ridiculed, all because of my extra tail. Normally I would have been able to outrun them but not this time. They had cornered me at the river. And I couldn't swim. In the end I ended up being knocked out from the brutal beating and covered in bruises, although none of them had managed to draw any blood.

'Why do people always pick on me?" I now wondered with tears in my eyes.

"It's 'cause of superstition."

The voice had appeared from nowhere and made me jump. I couldn't see the person but I was certain I heard the voice.

"L-L-Look, I don't want any trouble, I was just passing through and-"

"What makes you think I'm lookin' for trouble?"

I could now tell that the voice was female and was about my age. There was something familiar about it, like I knew it from somewhere before.

"The people who live on this island think that any creature with a birth-defect is a demon or somethin' of that nature," she continued, "That's why they pick on you. They do it to anybody they think is a demon. These are just people, mostly kids, with mutations or are hybrids."

"How do you know?' I asked.

"I asked around and made it fairly clear that I did not approve of what they were doing."

"Why, are you from this island?"

"No. I'm from the mainland, I'm here on… business."

"What kind of business would a fifteen-year-old have here?'

"Sixteen actually and it's private."

"Well where are you, I can't see you."

"And I can't see you. My face is pointed away from you and my eyes are closed. I figured I might as well do it that way so that we would be even. Does that make any sense to you?"

"I think it does."

"Ah well, can't win 'em all. Listen, it's kinda obvious you're not from this island."

"I just got here less than a week ago."

"Right so I'd get off this island if I were you, it's not safe, although that is kinda obvious."

"But we're on an island, I can't swim."

"Well that is a problem."

"Well I've gotta get going before those bullies find me again."

"A good idea, if I run into them, I'll be sure to give them a beating for ya."

"You don't have to."

"Nah, I want to, I hate bullies or anyone who tries to hurt others period. In other words, I beat up those who beat up others."

I giggled a bit at that.

"You better get going, I think I can hear them."

"How?'

"I have really good ears, I can hear someone picking at their nails/claws while in a car."

I decided not to ask questions and continued on my way. I ran through the forest again at a steady pace so I wouldn't tire myself out when I really needed to run. After about maybe five minutes of running I broke away from the foliage and onto the beach. It was probably the closest that I could get to the mainland. I didn't want to try getting there, I couldn't swim so if I fell into the water I'd be pretty messed up.

I sighed out my nose and began walking along the beach. I felt low, so low that I probably belonged underground. I kept my eyes on the ground, wondering about my friends and family again. I chuckled to myself when I thought about how some of them would react towards my situation. I knew about two or three of them would probably team up and beat the heck out of those jerks who were beating me up and maybe telling off some of the adults about how they were letting the teenagers use me as their punching bag. Some of them would probably bite into their necks and tear them out if they really got them mad.

That was when I walked into something.

I grabbed my nose and stepped back.

It was a bi-plane.

I blinked a few times at the strange coloring. It was bright pink but it looked like someone was painting over it with silver and black and cobalt blue paint. Whoever owned the plane was nowhere in sight, they were probably off doing something or had to be somewhere and left the plane in it's unfinished coat of paint. My Obsessive Compulsion Disorder was suddenly kicking in. I had the urge to finish the paint job and organize anything I could find in the plane. It was just a kind act for a stranger although I had no idea why I was doing it.

Before I even realized it, I had removed the contents of the plane and organized them by what they were, video games, art supplies, first aid kit, food, water bottles and so on. They were about five feet away from the plane when I began painting. I had a surprisingly steady hand as I painted and after about an hour, it was almost done.

"Well, well, well now, what do we 'ave 'ere?"

When I heard that voice, I froze and my fur stood on end. I turned around slowly. It was a trio, a tough looking bear, a monkey and a small badger. They all had grins on their faces. I gulped. They were the ones who constantly turned me into their punching bag.

"What 'cha doin' to dat plane, meat?" the bear growled.

"I-I-I was just p-p-painting it for-"

"I'd say it's an act of vandalism," the monkey sneered.

"Yeah," the badger, the leader, also sneered, "I say we teach 'im a lil' lesson 'bout other people's property and not messin' with 'em."

"B-B-But I-"

"Let's git 'im!" the bear yelled.

The bear grabbed me and held me in the air for about two seconds before something, or rather someone, made them stop.

"YO! HOLD IT!"

The three stopped dead in their tracks and slowly turned around as I looked over the bear's shoulder. It was a blue hedgehog and from the way the body was built I knew it was a female. She had black jeans, white sneakers, a gray t-shirt with short black sleeves and a skull on front. She had blue-green eyes and a semi-angry, semi-annoyed look in them. Her gloves were white but the cuffs were black and she had one hand on a brown backpack strap. The other was curled in a fist and placed on her hip.

"What do you three think yer doin'," she growled in a low voice.

"We were just gonna teach this shrimp a lesson fer messin' wit' this plane," the bear answered.

She looked at the plane and then back at them.

"He wasn't messin' with it," she said calmly, "He actually did an extremely good job at painting my plane."

"What?" the badger half squeaked.

"The plane's mine," she said, "I left it to do a few things in town and now that I come back to finish painting it, I see it more than halfway done and the kind person who did it is about to be beaten up by a group of thugs. So, do you wanna know what I do to bullies who beat up others?"

"What?" the monkey now growled.

She had a smirk slowly crawl onto her face and said,

"I beat _them_ up."

She dropped her backpack onto the ground and charged at them. She stopped just inches from the bear, landed on the ground, crouched down, jumped up and punched him in his jaw and then his nose. The bear dropped me onto the ground and I scampered behind one of the wheels of the plane.

(Shelby)

I smirked as the bear held his face in pain.

"Now scram before I call the police, or worse, I deal with you myself," I said as I jammed my thumb at myself.

The monkey didn't seem to hear me and got ready to punch me before the badger grabbed him.

"We'll be back," the badger growled.

"Trust me, you don't wanna come back or I may do something you'll regret," I said cockily.

All three of them gritted their teeth before retreating back into the forest.

"Jerk-offs," I said to myself, "Now, where'd that fox get to?"

I then noticed a pair of tails sticking out from behind one of the wheels of my plane.

"Yo, I can see you, your tails are sticking out" I said.

I head a "YIKES" come from behind the wheel and the fur on the two tails stood on end.

"Please don't hurt me!" came from behind the wheel.

The voice was male and about my own age. It was the same one I had spoken to earlier and even then the voice was familiar.

"I tell you why the inhabitants of this island are treating the gum beneath their sandals better than you and this is how you thank me?" I asked in a joking way.

"Wait, what?" came from the fox.

"I was the one talking to you in the forest, I remember your voice," I explained.

"Really?"

"Yeah and if I'm lying then I'm a green angel fish."

Then he laughed and came out from behind the wheel.

He was a yellow-orange with three brown bangs, black goggles, brown gloves, black and red sneakers and around his neck was a necklace with an opal cut into the shape of a turtle and his eyes were hazel.

"Nice to see they didn't beat you up this time," I said in a calm voice.

"Yeah well, it was just by chance that you came by and saved me."

"Tis' nothing," I said.

"Right, listen, I'm sorry to bother you miss…"

"First of all, don't call me miss anything, it makes me feel old. Second, it's no trouble, I actually like what you did with the coloring."

"Really?"

"Yep, blue is my favorite color and not just because of the color of my coat."

"Yeah well, thanks again for helping me out, those guys would have done who knows what to me."

"Meh, I've dealt with 'em before, if I run into them again I am going to break their manhood in the most gruesome ways I can think of…"

I probably had an evil sneer on my face.

"Uh, you don't for Eggman by any chance?"

That shattered a mirror in my mind.

"I. Do. Not. Work. For. That. MONSTER!"

The fox jumped back at my sudden outburst.

"Yikes, sorry I asked."

"Yeah well know this: I hate that guy with a passion so never ask me that question," I growled.

"You got it."

I smiled at the fox. He was nice, he deserved better than this stupid island and the idiots who lived on this stupid island.

"You have a family here?" I asked.

"Not exactly, I ran away from home about three weeks ago and accidentally ended up on this island. I've been here for almost half a week now," he replied.

I raised my brow at that. Not quite the answer I was expecting but it was an answer none-the-less.

"In that case, I guess nobody would mind if you left this place then," I said.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"My business here is done and I'm leave this island soon. You wanna come with me is what I'm asking" I said.

"Wait, are you serious?" he asked.

"As serious as I am blue," I answered.

"But, aren't you the least bit interested as to why I ran away?" he asked.

"Of course I'm curious but your reasons are your own," I said.

"Then you're not gonna ask?"

"Do you want me to?"

"…No."

"That answers one question but now back to my first one: do you want to come with me or don't you?"

"…"

"Your silence is so assuring."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"Hm, that's a good point," I said jokingly, "How about I tell you my name and you tell me yours?"

"Alright."

"In that case, my name is Shelby the Hedgehog, pleased to meet ya."

"I'm Levi the Fox."'

Something very tiny clicked in the back of my mind when I heard his name.

"Wait, you say you ran away from home three weeks ago right?" I asked.

"Well, more like three and a half weeks ago if you include my time on this island," he answered.

I looked harder at him.

"I see you have a few scars here and there," I said as I pointed at his arm.

He quickly grabbed his right arm where I had pointed and looked nervous.

"And don't you think your friends and family would be worrying themselves sick about your disappearance?" I now asked.

He began chewing his lip.

"How do you know so much?" he asked quietly.

"Because it's easy when you're tracking the search for one of your best friends via the news."

(Levi)

My mind was a jumbled mess. What did she mean by that? Then she smirked.

"You're not from Mobius are you?"

That made my fur stand on end.

"W-What makes you say that?" I stuttered.

"You're from a planet called Earth, another version of Mobius," she continued.

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm also from Earth."

"Yeah right!"

"Geez Levi-kun, you're a tough nut to crack."

"Yeah well I- Wait, did you just call me Levi-kun?"

"I did."

"But why?"

"Because you always call me Shelby-chan."

It took my mind several seconds to process what she just said.

"Shelby-chan?!" I almost yelled in shock and delight.

"Yo Levi-kun," was all she happily replied with.

(Shelby)

I was tackled to the ground by a ball of orange-yellow fur in a hug. Levi wasn't kidding about how fast he was in his e-mails. I'm pretty sure we were both laughing in delight, I can't remember exactly. It all happened so fast.

After a while, Levi pushed himself off of me. He had tears in his eyes, probably from realizing one of his online friends was stuck with his on the same world. I sat up and smiled back at him. I'd yell at him for running away from home without giving a reason or some sort of explanation later. Right now, I was just focusing on the fact that he was alive.

"I can't believe this!" he said.

"Believe it Levi-kun, it's real," I said as I stood up.

I offered him my hand to pull him up. He took it and I gave small tug to pull him off the ground and onto his feet.

"Arigotou Shelby-chan," he said with a happy smile.

"Yeah well, let's finish painting my plane and once the paint's dry we are off of this island and never looking back," I said.

"Alright!"

For the rest of the morning we finished painting my plane, which I told Levi was called The Blue Emerald.

"Where'd you get this thing?" he asked as he repainted the wing.

"Would you believe me if I told you Sonic the Hedgehog himself gave it to me?" I asked.

"…You're joking right?" Levi asked.

"Nope, it was built by Tails, designed by me and we both did the customization. Too bad I didn't tell him I don't like the color pink."

"A girl who doesn't like pink, now I've seen everything," Levi joked.

"Yeah, I planned on painting it once I landed here but I had to get something from town."

"What's that?"

"…Can you keep a secret?"

"Yeah."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out what I had been hiding and showed it to him with a,

"Tad ah!"

Levi's jaw dropped.

"A Chaos Emerald?!"

"Yep, Tails' radar picked up the energy from this emerald and Princess Sally sent me out here to get it. I can't go back at the moment though, there's a storm brewin' on the high sea and I'm not gonna risk my life trying to cross the ocean in a storm."

"How can you tell?"

"I can smell it in the air, besides, it gives me an excuse to finish my plane before heading out."

"If you say so."

By noon we were completely done painting the plane and if my guess was right, the tropical sun would dry up the plane by mid-afternoon.

"So what do we do now?" Levi asked.

"How 'bout some lunch, my treat," I offered as I remembered his almost-bottomless stomach.

"If you put it that way," he smiled.

"Lucky for you I packed some extra fruit," I smirked as I reached into my backpack.

I pulled a few things out including a flashlight, my Nintendo DS, a few DS games, some extra clothes, Mei, some rings, a few books and finally six apples and two water bottles. I gave Levi four of the apples since he looked like he hadn't eaten in days and by the way he was eating them it was obvious he hadn't.

"So Levi, how'd you end up here?" I asked as I chewed one of my apples.

"I'm not entirely sure," he answered after he swallowed, "I made a wish on a shooting star and the next thing I know I'm here as a two-tailed fox. What happened to you?"

"Eh, got kidnapped by Eggman, sent his dumbots after me, I used Chaos Control to escape, my best friend and brother were caught in it and they ended up here with me. We managed to get to New Mobotropolis after a while only to find out Sonic's been missing for quite some time now. We've been running a few jobs for the Freedom Fighters while trying to find any new leads on Sonic's disappearance."

"Yikes, sounds hard."

"It is."

"Choa."

We both turned to the source of the noise. A Sonic choa was sitting there and rubbing her tired eyes.

"Who's that?" Levi asked.

"That's Mei, she's my choa partner," I answered.

Mei flew up to me and I wrapped my arms around her.

"You can pet her if you want, she doesn't bite," I told Levi, "Unless I tell her to."

Levi seemed almost eager to rub Mei's head, who made he usual purr-like sound she made when someone pet her between the ears and the emotion ball that floated over her head turned into a heart.

"She's so cute," Levi commented, "I can hardly believe that I'm petting the choa of one of my best online friends."

"Heh, it's not all that strange, if you told me something like this was gonna happen one day before I ended up here I might be a bit skeptical but I wouldn't call you insane."

"Really why not?"

"Because this isn't my first to Mobius, it's my second in the past five years."

(Levi)

"Hedgehog friend say what?!" I nearly screamed.

"You heard me," Shelby said with a raised index finger, "This isn't my first trip to Mobius. My last one was when I was fourteen, when Robotnik kidnapped me for the first time but I managed to escape on my own and Sonic found me and took me to Knothole. Couple a' hours later Eggman attacked and destroyed Knothole and one rescue mission later we're in New Mobotropolis thanks to Nicole."

That was one mouth I didn't wanna attempt. Her poor grammar at certain points showed her slight southern accent. She must have gotten it from her parents or at least one of them.

"Choa!" Mei squeaked.

Mei squirmed out of Shelby's arms, walked over to me and sat in my lap. She looked up at me with a cute smile and squeaked again.

"Choa."

Then Mei's stomach growled.

"I take it that those apples were for you and Mei?" I asked weakly.

"Yeah, kinda," she answered flatly.

"Sorry."

"It's nothin' we're just gonna hafta go into town and buy some more, I doubt we'll make it back to the mainland with how little food we have and knowing your metabolism you won't last half way through the flight," she said on a single breath.

"But I don't wanna go into town," I protested, "The bullies usually hang out in the market."

"Well we have no other choice," she said as she got up. "And if they come anywhere near you, I will personally turn into tapioca."

She punched her fist into her hand with a loud smack.

"Besides, I'll scare 'em away."

"How?"

"You'll see, and if any of 'em come within five feet of ya, they'll pay heavily."

I chewed my lip harder than normal I didn't want to go into town. The bullies and heartless adults were in town and yet Shelby wanted to go there despite my objections.

"Is it alright if I stay here?" I asked.

"I wouldn't, those jerks from before will probably be back and I don't want to leave you alone until we're safely on the mainland, or at least as safe as the mainland gets."

That one sentence made my fur stand on end.

"Shelby, the beck of my neck is starting to burn," I said as I rubbed myself on that very spot.

"Isn't that where you start burning when you "sense" trouble?" she asked.

"Yeah, but I can't shake the feeling that there's going to be trouble if I stay with the plane or go."

"A lose/lose situation in other words?"

"Yeah."

Shelby crossed her arms, closed her eyes and looked down in a thinking position. I blinked a few times before she opened her eyes and looked at me.

"Well, in my personal opinion, it would be better for you to some with me, at least then you'll have some protection."

I remembered how many times Shelby had told me about her strength and martial arts over our e-mails and a quick scan of her body told me that she wasn't joking.

"Don't worry, Mei's comin' to," she continued.

"Why would that make much of a difference?" I asked with a raised brow.

"Think of it this way: Choa are the children of Chaos. Child of Chaos plus Chaos Emerald, think."

I'm pretty sure my irises and pupils shrank seconds later.

"I'll follow ya," I said quickly.

Mei flew out of my arms turned around and gave me such an innocent smile. Hard to believe the little creature could become a killer with the Chaos Emeralds in it's possession.

"Don't worry, I'll carry the emerald," Shelby said as she shoved it into her pants pocket.

I got up and tilted my head. She was so confident and calm with a smile on her lips and an extended hand. I looked from her hand to her face and back again a few times. Finally, I grabbed her hand and that confidence she seemed to have surged into me.

(Shelby)

When we finally got to the market, almost immediately all the eyes on the dirt street and behind the stands were on the two of us. I had a huge smirk on my face at their looks of shock, amazement and horror. I was holding back my laughter. I could hear some of them whispering but a simple look at them that could barely be a glare shut them up.

We went to the banana stand first. I grabbed a large bundle of them all the while the stand-keeper was staring at us.

"These are twenty rings right?' I asked as I placed them in a bag.

"Yes," the gorilla said in an obviously uncertain voice, "but we have a special requirement when it comes to demons. The price doubles."

I felt a vein twitch somewhere on my head.

"Uh, Levi's not the one buying the bananas, I am," I said as my voice strained to keep from yelling.

The gorilla couldn't give any come back at that. I only dropped a single silver ring that was equal to the twenty rings onto the counter. Without looking back, I grabbed Levi's arm and half-dragged him to another stand.

It wasn't until we were at the sixth and final stand did something- or rather someone, boiled over. The wild dog who owned the medical stand seemed to be friendly enough to the porcupine that left the stand before we got there but when he saw us, his jaw dropped and slammed his hands on the stand.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he growled.

"To buy some medical herbs of course," I answered.

"Well I ain't sellin' nothin' to that freak!" he yelled as he pointed at Levi.

On impulse, I gave him my kind of reply: I bit the dog's finger. He let out a cry before grabbing his hand when I let go. I crossed my arms and grinned an evil grin I had so very much wanted to bite harder. The wild dog's screaming caught the attention of everyone around us.

"She bit me! That little bitch bit me!" he was screaming.

A group of those standing around us ran to the wild dog's aid but screamed in fear when they approached, they saw Levi's second tail. Only a few of them actually got close enough to bandage the dog's finger. When the bleeding stopped, he stood up and glared at me now instead of Levi.

"You little bitch," he growled. "How dare you bite my finger."

"Consider yourself lucky," I taunted, "I could have bitten it right off if I wanted to."

"I outgha murder you right here and now!" he yelled.

"Let's see ya try," I taunted as I grabbed Levi, "If you can catch me, you can do anything you want to me but if ya can't, you leave us alone."

"Sh-Shelby-chan?!" Levi cried.

The dog jumped over the stand with extended arms but he didn't get close. I ran down the dirt road with Levi trailing behind me. Very easily, I managed to run faster and faster with Levi keeping up.

"What about the medicine?" Levi asked.

"Forget it, we're leaving this island!" I half-yelled, "I can't take another second of this prejudice!"

In my anger, I ran at an extremely high speed and broke away from the bushes and onto the beach where the Blue Emerald lay in wait. I stopped and let go of Levi. I grabbed all of my things laid on the beach and shoved them into the grocery bags before throwing them into the plane.

"Get in," I ordered.

"What?" Levi asked.

"We're leaving NOW! I can't take being on this rock anymore! If I have to hear one more cruel saying about ANYONE I'm going to go Donkey Kong all over 'em"

Levi just stayed quiet but climbed into the plane.I climbed into the pilot's seat of the Blue Emerald and began pressing buttons and flipping switches.

"Choa."

Mei laid on my shoulder and looked at me. I rubbed her head and pushed a lever forward. The engine jumped to life and the smell of gas filled my nose. I set the plane to make an emergency take-off. I didn't bother even looking what we were using as a runway and I didn't care. One lever push later and we were in the air.

(Levi)

I knew it was a good idea not to speak to Shelby at that moment. I could sense a lot of anger coming off of her so I stayed quiet. After being in the air for about ten minutes I looked back to the island but it was already out of sight. I turned again to be in the seat properly.

"Sorry you had to see that," I heard Shelby say. "I lost my temper. Feel stupid now though. Got a little too cocky"

"It's okay, I might have done the same if it were me," I said as I tried to cheer her up.

"You don't have to be nice you know Levi, you know I'm a tough cookie," she said.

"Physically yes but what about mentally and emotionally?" I asked without thinking.

"I'll give you that one."

"Choa choa!"

"So are we going?" I asked.

"Our base."

"Base?'

"Yeah, we're not Freedom Fighters but we are friends with them and work with them, we just follow different rules."

"Like what?"

"When situation calls for it, do whatever it takes to survive and get out alive and finish the mission if possible."

"What else?"

"These next rules are strict and I do not allow the breaking of them without harsh punishment: strictly no animal abuse, EVER! You put others before yourself, if you get reckless and you're put on suspension until everyone else says so. Drugs like crack and heroine are a big no-no, same for beer and smokes. Get angry take it out on the punching bags. Protect feral animals and choa when they're in danger and hat's about it."

"I can live with that," I said.

"I knew you would."

That pretty much sums up how I met Shelby and escaped the island and about two or three hours later we finally landed in a wooded area on the mainland with a runway that led under the tree line and a fairly decent place to hide. When we climbed out, Shelby tossed her stuff out of the plane before getting out. She and Mei then began to pull dead tree limbs over the Blue Emerald without saying a word. It was probably some strange way of hiding the plane so no one could find it. After completely hiding the plane, they both turned to me with smiles.

"Well, the base isn't too far from here, we can walk there from here, it'll only take a minute or two," Shelby explained as she picked up the bags.

I smiled and began following them down a dirt path I hadn't noticed. Mei flew ahead of us and was singing, making sounds similar to the sounds the choa in the Gamma flashback from Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut were making when they were singing. It was actually pretty cute-sounding. After a few seconds, Shelby began making similar sounds. She was singing with Mei. After singing for about a minute they stopped, turned and looked cutely at me.

"Sorry about that, I just love the sounds choa make so much that I sometimes end up making the same sounds without even thinking about it," Shelby said sheepishly.

"Chao chao!"

Mei pointed down the dirt path to the house just ahead.

"Well here we are," Shelby said, " C'mon, the others are probably either somewhere inside or in the forest somewhere."

She grabbed my arm and began running towards the house. About half way there, she looked back and had the reassuring smile Sonic the Hedgehog himself always had when one of his friends are unsure of something. How she learned to do that smile I'll never know.

"You know Levi," she said, "We're kind of like Sonic and Tails. The hedgehog goes to an island and happens upon a fox in need by chance and they end up being good friends. Sure a few details are different but it's vaguely the same thing."

I smiled at that. I couldn't help myself. Maybe this adventure that I first thought was a bad thing wasn't go to be nearly as terrible as I thought at first.

---

**Tell me if you think I should continue with this story. This is for Levi because he deserves it. He's a great friend and this is just something I did for him because I wanted to do something for him. If you think I should continue with this and want to be part of it, tell me and give me this few details and please be truthful:**

**Name and/or nickname(s)**

**Age**

**Gender**

**Eye color**

**Species**

**Likes**

**Dislikes**

**Pet/choa partner and what they look like**

**Clothing**

**Powers/Abilities**

**Anything special or different**

**Musical instrument or singing**

**You get the idea.  
**


	2. The Truely Strange

**Disclaimer: Baron Von Beef Dip owns Nick, Shippo's Ramen owns Levi and I own Shelby, my brother (he doesn't have a FF account) owns Matt.**

**Chapter one: The Truly Strange**

(Levi)

I flinched when Shelby kicked the front door of the cabin open.

"The hedgehog is back!" she called inside

I could hear her voice echo inside the cabin and that told me it was spacious on the inside. With a somewhat prideful strut Shelby walked in with her head held high and Mei flew closely behind. Not wanting to be left behind, I ran after them.

I was inside a small straight corridor with two doors with windows on either side. The doors had windows. I glanced through the windows to see what looked like an office on the right and a coatroom on the left. I then noticed that the twenty to thirty foot long hall had an extremely dark shade of purple and black paint all over.

"Levi, stop gapping at my office and come look," Shelby called from the end of the corridor.

"Choa choa choa choa choa choa!"

From the other end of the hall, I saw a hero choa with a purple halo, neon green unicorn horn and dragon wings and horns. It flew wildly until it crashed right into Shelby's arms.

"Hi Wow," she said as she held the choa.

"You have two choa?" I asked in surprise.

"What can I say, sometimes you choose the choa and sometimes the choa choose you."

I just shook it off.

"Now c'mon."

I ran to catch up and stopped dead in my tracks. There are only two words I can find in my vocabulary to describe it: royal goth.

I was on a loft over looking a room that was painted in all shades of purple, dark pink, red and black. Royal purple velvet curtains with golden edgings hung from the support beams that kept the loft up. The floor of the loft was polished wood and the floor I was looking down to had dark purple and black carpeting. A pool table was off to one side while a plasma TV was attached to a wall and black leather couches, chairs and love seats were placed in front of the TV. Beanbag chairs were in front of the TV and by the fireplace to the far right. We were at the far right end of the loft and all the way at the other end was the stairs and what looked like a rope swing lay and wait over the railing

"Whoa, this place is huge," I breathed as I looked over the safety railing.

"Yeah, it was Sally's idea for us to stay here." Shelby said. "C'mon, we gotta go lower to get to the kitchen."

Mei and Wow flew down to a staircase near the pool table with safety guards surrounding it. The staircase went down but to where I couldn't see. When I realized Shelby was already half way to the end of the loft I ran to catch up to her. As I passed it, I let my fingers run over the rope swing, wondering whose idea it was to put it there. It wasn't until we were half way down the stairs did Shelby call out,

"Nick, Matthew, get out here and help put the groceries away!"

There was no response.

"Those jerks, leaving us to put everything away," she growled under her breath. " I'm gonna get you both for this!"

I followed Shelby, Mei and Wow down the second staircase into a room with brown paint. The counters and cabinet themselves were brown while the fridge and just about everything else were shades of black. The sink was the only thing silver.

Shelby placed the groceries on the counter and let out a sigh. I took a guess that they were heavy. Without a word being said, we began putting things away. Shelby put them away and seemed to know just where to put them. I didn't know where to put them and Mei seemed to notice that. When I picked up a box of cereal, Mei flew in front of me and squeaked a few times while pointing at one of the cabinets. Mei then flew up towards the cabinet and chattered furiously. I opened the cabinet and there were about two boxes of cereal.

After that, Mei and Wow guided me to the proper places for whatever I picked up. After maybe five minutes the last of the groceries, the bananas, were placed in a fruit bowl and we were finally done. Shelby roughly sat on a stool with a sigh of relief. I sat on one as well and felt the pressure in my legs lift. Mei landed on my arm and also sighed while Wow rested on Shelby's head.

"A few minutes of rest and then I'm going to go kill those two," Shelby sighed.

"Do as you wish," I groaned. "By the way, how long have you guys been here, on Mobius I mean?"

"'Bout two weeks, give or take a few days," Shelby answered.

"And were you serious about Sonic the Hedgehog missing right?"

"As much as I wish I was kidding about it I'm not."

"So, Sonic the Hedgehog is currently missing in action but what about the other characters?"

"Other than Sonic, Shadow and a few others from different worlds and dimensions everyone's fine and locatable. We've had contact with them so we know they're fine but they haven't heard or seen any sign of Sonic."

"Any ideas or theories?"

"Trust me I've worked every angle I can think of that we can actually do, things like going to other planets and dimensions is out of our abilities."

"What do you mean?"

"Levi I have considered Sonic was picked by Zonic at some point, ended in another dimension, even considered that Sonic entered the Smash Bros Tournament but it was contrasted because he didn't tell anybody about it, not even Tails or Sally."

"So what then? Did Robotnik have anything to do with it?"

"Eggman's not out real threat anymore."

"Excuse me?"

"Poor ol' doc went insane about six months after I left, one too many beat downs from Sonic sent him over the edge. He's currently being held in solitary with Snivley and the Dark Egg Legion as he main care givers."

"Then who's in charge of his empire?"

"I don't know much 'bout 'er, other than the fact that she and Snivley are an item, she has a bunch o' follower and she's called The Iron Queen. She was the one who ordered the kidnapping."

"Iron Queen? Sounds evil… wait, does she know anything about Sonic's disappearance?"

"Levi, ever since I found out about Sonic's disappearance I went on a destroying spree of the factories and bases that are left. At every Spybot I've seen I've made demands for what they knew about Sonic vanishing. I even confronted them about a few days ago and threatened to kill all of them if he didn't tell me what I wanted to know. Those I threatened had to be the greatest actors of both Earth and Mobius when I did because they were balling and kept saying they didn't know anything. As much as I hate to say it, I don't think they had anything to do with it. So we're back to square one: a missing hero, no leads, no evidence, no nothin'. Even Scourge was ruled out because he's under arrest at Zone Cop base."

"That sucks, so you and the Freedom Fighters have no answers at all?"

"No, and I'm really starting to worry about him. About as worried as I was about you when I first heard that you ran away."

Guilt hit me like a sack of bricks.

"Sorry."

"You had your reasons to runaway and even though I've been worrying myself sick about you for three and a half weeks at least I finally know you're alright. Now I can focus all of my worry on Sonic."

"Why are you worrying about him so much?"

"…It's a long story. A story within a story I guess. I learned about it when I was here two years ago. Sometimes when I think about it I find it hard to believe even though I know it's true. And I'm not ready to talk about it with anyone from Earth, yet. I've already told Nick and Matt this."

"Why? What happened?"

"I don't talk about it because nobody will believe me, why would they when I can barely believe it myself and I'm not saying what happened."

"Can't keep me from being curious though."

"Same for me as to why you ran away."

Her voice was suddenly loud and harsh. She just roughly sighed, put her hand on my head and ruffled the fur on my head.

"Stop it," I said as I bat her hand away.

Mei and Wow made a sound similar to laughing.

"Well, time to go find my idiots and kill 'em," Shelby sighed.

"You're not really gonna kill 'em are ya?" I asked.

"It's a joke, I'm just gonna give 'em a hard time and a few play hits here and there," she said in a reassuring voice.

I smiled slightly before also standing up and following her up the stairs and back into the royal goth room.

"Yar har maties!"

I nearly jumped at the loud cry.

"'Tis a pirate ship!"

On the stairs that led to the loft I saw a yellow fox with brown spot over his eyes wearing a red and yellow pirate coat and a plastic baseball bat in one hand. He was jumping up and down and continued saying 'yar har' and laughing like a maniac.

"You're goin' down dude!"

From the loft and swinging on the rope swing was a black and green armadillo although he was noticeably small. He also had a plastic bat. The fox jumped from the stairs and the two began what looked like a sword fight minus the swords.

Shelby groaned, "Oh no,"

"Uh, Shelby-chan what is going on here?" I asked.

"I'll be blunt: the fox is Nick, the small armadillo is my brother Matt and I'm guessing it was a bad idea to leave them alone with a copy of Treasure Island lying around," she said.

That was when what I think was a frying pan flew over our heads.

"Okay, I've had enough."

Shelby grabbed Mei and Wow and with a hard throw, hit Nick in the side of the head. She then grabbed Matt by the scruff of his neck.

"What are you doin' Shell?" the black and green armadillo asked.

He stopped and by the look on his face, she was clearly angry. She then walked over to Nick and grabbed him the same way, despite him being a little bit bigger than her and bonked their heads together and then dropped them.

"I can't leave you two alone for a few hours without you two turning the base into a playground can I?" she asked.

"Yewouch, easy sis!" Matt yelled as he rubbed the bump that was slowly forming on his head.

Nick was simply out of with, quite literally, yellow stars replacing his irises and pupils.

"Is he gonna be alright?" I asked as I pointed down at him,

"He'll be fine, that's normal for him," Shelby said extremely casually.

"I see pink elephants," Nick said in a voice that made it clear he was completely out of it.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, watch," she walked up to him and grabbed him by the collar of the coat he was wearing, "Nick, Nick, wake up Senior Stupid!"

She threw him onto the floor and from behind her pulled out… A BLUE AND BLACK MALLET?!

"What the heck is that?!" I yelled.

"The hammer cartoon characters pull out of their hammer space and make their enemies go splat with, duh," came from the two siblings.

BAM!

I flinched at the noise. I had been positive that I would hear the crunching of bones but instead I heard just a loud bang. There wasn't any blood either he simply disappeared under the giant hammer. When she lifted up the hammer, there was a yellow sticky blob stuck to her hammer and to the floor with only a pair of hazel eyes with brown spots over them.

I could only blink.

"Surprised?" Shelby asked.

"Uhhhhh…"

"Heheh, don't worry, it's one of his abilities," she explained, "The Power of Randomness as we call it. Cliche cartoon antics are his specialty and those abilities have a tendency to rub off on others, hence my hammer."

I'm pretty sure I felt my eye twitch.

Shelby just laughed.

"Levi-kun," she said as she pulled her hammer up and rested it on her shoulder, "Pardon my saying but in that fox form of yours, you're as cute as a button, especially when you're freaked out."

I blushed.

"Who uses that phrase anymore?" Matt asked.

"Okay Nick, you can "de-blob" yourself now," she said as she looked at the yellow blob on her hammer.

Nick pulled himself free of her hammer and the slime on the floor quickly reformed itself into the yellow fox, complete with his pirate coat. It was just like something out of a cartoon.

"That… was freaky," I said in a weak voice.

"You get used to it," all three of them said.

"Hey, it has the sanity of the school Nick and I go to so we're not really all that shaken," Shelby said casually as she leaned on the handle of her hammer.

"Too true," Nick backed up.

"You're not one to talk, you're the center of the insanity of our class, you're barely sane."

"Ah c'mon, I'm not that ba-"

"Ganondorf in a speedo."

The sentence was quick and sudden but it made Nick scream. It took a few seconds for my mind to register what she said.

"That's how she keeps Nick in line," Matt said. "It's called "Character in a…", it's a game they play, you put some random video game character in some outrageous outfit that they would never wear and the first one to scream loses."

I looked back at the other two. Shelby was still going at it.

"Is that why she said…" I couldn't finish it.

"Yeah, she's gotten me with it too."

"Eggman in a bunny suit!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Ganonodorf in a tutu!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Here comes the final blow!" Matt cheered.

"Ganondorf in a pink tutu that has a swan head that has a crown, white ballet shoes and his own version of the crown on the swans head!"

Nick screamed and literally deflated like a balloon.

I was scared and stunned. I covered my eyes before anything else could happen. This is what I heard:

"I win."

"You always win."

"I know."

"How _is_ that possible?"

"I don't know. I'm just immune to any shots fired at me."

"You're impossible."

"I know."

"Choa."

"Oh, before I forget, the punching bag is broken."

"What do you mean broken?"

"Well, I was practicing with it and I kinda… tore a hole in it?"

"I told you the punching bag is only for physical strength, not for your powers."

"Yeah, yeah either way there's sand all over the training room now."

"You didn't clean it up?"

"I'll do it later."

"Oh no, I'm not letting you turn this place into our basement, you get in there and clean it up NOW!"

"You're not my mom."

"And I'm glad I'm not and for the record, we have the same mother, remember? And if I had a choice, I'd rather be her than Dad 'cause of how much trouble you get in."

"I don't always get in trouble."

"Do you want me to go down the list?'

"…"

"Poor grades, playing your guitar a little too loudly, sounding like a wounded animal when you're with your buddies, eating us out of house and home and it goes on. Plus the fact that you do them over and over again doesn't help."

"…"

"They just want the best for you y'know, I do too. We care about you and being parents trying to do that means they hafta give you a hard time."

That was when I moved my hands from my eyes. Matt was standing up now and was being stared down by his sister. He was looking at the floor. Shelby just looked down, sighed after a few seconds, shook her head and then turned to me.

"Levi, come with me."

I stayed quiet but walked up to her. She stretched out her hand to me. I took it and let her lead me back up the stairs.

(Matt)

Shelby is such a fucking idiot.

She thinks she knows so much but she doesn't. I'm old enough to take care of myself and yet she still treats me like a little kid. She's been acting like a controlling bitch ever since we got to Sonic's world Mobius is what she calls it. I don't need her she's just my stupid sister.

She made herself the leader, decided who slept in what room at the base, began going on solo-missions, got a bi-plane and then she brings in some fox to our base. At first he seemed nice enough but when he took her hand after she preached me. She had gone on about how she and our 'rents cared about me and that I was behaving badly but what does she know? The bitch wasn't worth listening to. At least I had had girlfriends, she's more than three years older than me and she hasn't even had a boyfriend. Now she suddenly brings home a strange fox and takes him up stairs and I saw her go into my room. That meant one thing:

She was going to take down the ladder attached to the ceiling of my room and go into the attic, her room.

I was now curious.

Why the hell was she taking him up to her bedroom? She hadn't even let Nick or me up there, not like we could reach it. The ladder was out of our reach even if we jumped but we jumped about as high as we could when we were humans. Shelby could jump up with ease and pull it down. She used it to get into the attic, which she made her room. If we tried to follow her, she would slam the hatch door down on us and lock it from the inside.

She had replaced the ladder with a rope latter with some weights at the end that wasn't attached to the floor to make it easier to climb. When she wasn't in her room, she detached the ropes from the ceiling and hid the ladder. Where, I have no idea.

Now though, I was curious about this guy, Levi, and why she let him in while we couldn't even go up the latter to take a quick peek. I'd deal with him later. Right now, it was time for me to brood.

(Shelby)

I pulled the rope ladder out from under Matthew's bed. Hiding it under his very nose was pure genius he didn't even look in his room to find it. I took one end of the ladder, looked up at the two hooks near the attic door, jumped up and hooked the two loops on both side of the ladder. When I landed next to Levi, he had a look of surprise.

"When I was here on Mobius last time, I had enough time to train my body to become more powerful, that's why I'm more athletic than Matt or Nick but once they get used to their new bodies they'll catch up quick and I'm sure you will too," I explained.

"Right," he said in a somewhat nervous voice.

I couldn't help but smile at him. I wasn't joking when I said he was cute as a button in this new form. He was just so cute that you couldn't help but have even the slightest urge to squeeze him.

"C'mon, my room's the attic," I said as I grabbed the rope ladder.

"Why'd you choose the attic?"

"You'll see. Oh, and you might wanna be careful, climbing these things is a lot harder than it looks."

I hate rope ladders. They always moved when you tried to climb them and made it that much harder to keep your balance and you could easily slip. The weights were to keep the ladder somewhat steady enough and keep it from moving too much. It was still hard to climb though. I climbed it slowly so not too lose my footing or balance so after about thirty seconds I made it up to twenty feet and at the door. I gave it a hard shove and it slammed open. I pulled myself up and into my room before turning around and reaching out to Levi. He had followed closely behind me and he was just as clumsy as I was when I climbed one of those stupid ladders for the first time but he actually managed to climb it. When I tried for the first time, it had moved too much for my comfort for. Could you blame me? I had a fear of heights and the sudden movement of the ladder scared me and my balance was not any good at all in those conditions. At least Levi had actually managed to climb almost the entire way. I pulled him up the final foot.

He was much heavier than I thought. Then I saw the backpack on his shoulders that I had failed to notice earlier.

"I'll take it that's the infamous seventeen pound backpack?" I asked as I pointed at it.

"Heh, yep," he said.

I smirked.

"Lemme have it."

"Huh?"

"I wanna see if I can lift it, so lemme have it."

"Are you sure? This thing is heavy."

"I know."

Levi only chuckled, took off his backpack and dropped it into my waiting hands. I barely even flinched. I smirked slightly. Levi wasn't kidding about his backpack's weight but much to Levi's surprise, I was able to keep it in the air and completely off the ground.

"Impressive," he said as he took it back.

"I thank having more than five years of martial arts behind me," I said somewhat proudly.

"So where are we exactly?" he asked.

"My room, the attic actually but I sleep here," I answered.

"Why?"

"Watch."

The room was dark but I didn't need to see to know what I was doing. I closed my eyes, losing myself in the total darkness. I crossed my arms over my chest and curled my fingers. I didn't have to see to know that my hands were covered in green energy, Chaos Energy and then thrust me arms out. The energy jumped from my hands and ran all the way across the room before vanishing. Two straight rows of candles lit up when the energy flew just over the wicks. The room lit up to show two rows of bookcases pushed up against the left and right walls and were filled with books on all of the shelves. You'd think the bookshelves would burst from all the books being crammed into them. At the far end of the room, there was a circle window with a dull red couch under it with several books stacked around it. To the right of the couch was a staircase that led to the room I slept in.

"This is why I chose to sleep in this room," I told Levi.

"I've never seen so many books," he breathed.

"They're all about just about everything. Fact, fiction, sci-fi, romance, fantasy, myth and more," I said proudly.

"There's so many, please tell me you haven't read all of these," Levi said as he pulled a book on mythology off one of the shelves.

"Well on days I'm not given a mission I either read, train or look into Sonic's disappearance."

"How many of these have you read?"

"I don't know, a lot though. My mind thirsts knowledge and it's never quenched."

Levi flipped through the pages of the book before closing it and putting it back in its place.

"Is there any other reason you brought me here?" he asked.

"Well considering that we don't have anymore rooms set up for another person to sleep in and Nick doesn't let guys into his room and Matt plays his guitar late into the night and early in the morning they're not exactly the best choices at the moment."

"So are you saying that I have to sleep with you tonight?"

"As long as you stay on your side of the bed then yeah."

"I'm up for it, you know I'm not perverted in any way."

"I know, just givin' ya a hard time."

"Do you give everybody a hard time?'

"Only when I'm fooling with 'em."

Levi gave a small laugh.

"C'mon, the bed's up the stairs," I said as I gestured towards the staircase.

Levi joined me at the stairs and before going up them, I snapped the fingers on my left hand and the candles went out. Small paper lanterns that hung from the ceiling of the staircase were our only light. I lead Levi up the stairs and into a large room.

"Whoa."

It had a Japanese style to it, with only the windows, candles and paper lanterns as its light source. It was painted dark shades of blue around the bed that was pushed under the window like the red couch. It was big, a queen sized bed meant for humans making it twice as big for Mobians, with blue and white sheets and pillows and a few Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow and Amy plushies laid on the bed. There was a small chest pushed to the far right corner with more of my supplies inside.

"This is your room?!" Levi asked.

"Yeah, Sally took care of the decorating of not only this room but the entire base. I just love it though," I said.

Levi looked around and then turned to me.

"Something on your mind?" I asked.

"Being honest, I don't really know what's on my mind," he said.

"A little too much to take in?"

"Yeah."

"It was the same for me the first time too."

"I don't mean the room."

"I know, it's this whole situation, being sent to Mobius by some power outside your control, danger around every corner and finding parts of yourself you never though you'd find, it was the same way for me. However you have one thing that makes it easier than my adventure."

"What's that?"

I only smirked.

"Us."

"Huh?"

"When I was here, I was on my own with the Freedom Fighters trying to find my way home but they were always so busy that I spent most of my time with Sonic as for the others only in the heat of battle did I really get to see them. They were trying to get me home and at the same time fight Robotnik. Sonic was also extremely kind to me, he never acted that way around anyone, not even Sally."

"Why?"

"I don't really know, he never said. I think it was just some sort of impulse to be kind he had or something, he acted almost like my guardian angel or the loving big brother I never had, in both actions and words. There were times when I actually cried and he comforted me. I could never find the courage to ask him why he did what he did. He protected me and I can't thank him enough. Now the least I can do is try and find out what happened to him. I know he'd do the same for me."

"Sounds nice."

"It was. Although, I wonder if he did it just because it was nice or if he truly cared and if I was actually a friend to him or a burden."

"Shelby-chan you know Sonic isn't-"

"That's not what I mean. I know Sonic wouldn't think that but he was helping me so much and taking up so much of his time. In the end, I honestly don't know anything anymore."

I tried to feel sadness as I said it but I couldn't.

"Choa."

Mei flew over me, Levi and then landed on the bed. She reached under the covered and Wow pulled out a small packet of matches.

"You keep matches under your bed covers?" Levi asked.

"It's the best hiding place from Nick and Matt, I don't trust them with fire."

Wow flew up to me and handed me the matches before pointing towards the window. The sun was starting to go down and the sky had already turned orange. I smiled weakly and looked at Levi. I then went around the room and began lighting the lanterns and candles.

(Levi)

We passed the next few hours by telling stories, telling jokes and reading books from the library, Mei even began singing at one point. Like before, when Mei sang, Shelby and Wow sang along and I made an attempt to sing with them at some points.

"So I told him: Yeah right and I have bodies buried under my backyard."

Mei, Wow and I laughed at that, such confidence and cockiness in the face of danger, specifically to Super Scourge's face and lacking all fear at the time.

"How'd you manage to do that?" I asked once I stopped laughing.

"Do what?" she asked.

"Get the courage to tell off Scourge when he was in his super form and not fear for your life."

"Oh that, that's one of my abilities, although I will admit that it's a strange one."

"What's so strange about it?"

She was quiet for a minute before saying,

"Look closely at my eyes."

"What?"

"Just do it, you'll understand my ability if you do."

I furrowed my brow at that before looking closely at her eyes. They were blue-green with a touch of grey. An unusual color by most standards but considering our situation I didn't put much thought into it. Then she closed her eyes tightly. I continued to stare. She furrowed her brow as well and then she opened her eyes. I could almost swear I saw a small blue flash of light come from between her eyelashes.

They were emerald green.

"What the heck?" I asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

"This is that ability. When my eyes change to the color of a Sonic character's eyes I pick up on their traits, personality, abilities, feelings and even their ideas sometimes. I've never understood it myself and yet it makes sense."

"What do you mean?"

Her eyes were slowly fading back to their blue/green/grey coloring as she answered,

"Its sort of an inside joke but I kind of act like some sort of hybrid of the Sonic characters, namely the heroes, when it's called for. There are times when I act cocky and confident like Sonic, smart and brainy like Tails, protective and serious like Knuckles and so forth and so on. This eye-color thing just adds to it."

"Well that's kinda cool."

"If that's what you wanna call it."

I yawned and stretched my arms before letting them fall to my sides.

"It's late," she said, "Almost midnight, time to get some sleep."

"I'll second that."

Mei and Wow also yawned before floating over to a pillow at the other end of the bed and curled up on it. Shelby crawled over the bed and to the right side, the side closest to the wall.

"You can sleep here," she said, "Just keep it appropriate."

"Yeah, you know I will,," I smiled as I crawled up beside her.

"Oh and I better warn ya," she said in a groggy voice, "I have strange powers when it comes to dreams so if something happens while you're dreaming, it'll probably be my fault."

I was too tired to really listen or care about what she said, kicked off my sneakers and removed my goggles before crawling under the covers. Mei and Wow were asleep already and breathing calmly. It was calming and the candles slowly went out one-by-one. It wasn't long before I slipped into a deep sleep.


	3. Scumbags

**Disclaimer:** Shippo's Ramen owns Levi, Baron Von Beef Dip owns Nick, my brother owns Matt, I own Shelby, Knife, Danny and Danni.

**Chapter three: Scumbags**

It was about 2:46 in the morning when something was thrown at our HQ. I was stirred slightly by the noise and when there was a second bang I realized that someone was throwing something at us. I groaned and sat up. Shelby-chan was already sitting up with a tired look on her face. There was a third bang.

"What the heck is goin' on?" I groaned.

"I'll find out," Shelby grumbled.

She crawled over to the window and opened it up. When she looked out she said,

"Oh no."

"What is it?" I asked as I grabbed my goggles.

"Levi it's time for you to meet the neighborhood scumbags."

I crawled next to her to look out the window. It took me a few seconds for me to find them but I did see them. It was a pair of almost identical raccoons they were both males with opposite gray and black markings. They were both wearing green and brown hiking boots and had sneers on their faces.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Danny and Danni," Shelby said loudly, probably loud enough for them to hear.

"Hi pussycat," they said in screechy voices that only sounded even more screechy in stereo.

"Shut up you two." Shelby said, "What are you doing here anyways?"

"What do you think?" Again speaking in stereo.

They both picked up stones from the ground and threw their stones right at us. Shelby slammed the window shut before the stones hit us. The stones bounced off the window. When the stones bounced off Shelby opened the window back up and glared at the two raccoons and called down to them,

"Listen before either of you start please don't tell me again about how having machines replacing your organs is the most rewarding thing in the world. If you don't have at least that means I get to fight you for longer periods of time before you beg me to stop."

I looked at Shelby in shock. What do these guys say to her?! Before I could voice my question we heard a tree branch break nearby. We looked to the tree closest to us and I saw what I thought was a King Kong version of a raccoon. Shelby seemed to know him though.

"Knife," she said, "What are you doing hanging around with these low lives?"

The raccoon-monkey thing let out a loud laugh and I could tell he was the leader of the neighborhood scumbags.

"Shelby," he said looking at her, "You crazy old goodie two shoes, I see you've been cruising romance lane for a change. That little cutie-pie you've got there sure is a juicy number."

At first I didn't get what he was saying but then my mind woke up enough for me to register what he just said: romance lane meaning he thought that we were….

I'm not even going there.

"So you gonna show us some of the tricks he showed you?" Knife asked as he dropped onto the roof.

He was a raccoon, but he was one shaggy one. His fur was a red-ish brown with creamy brown markings. He was big and bulky, obviously extremely strong but he was also obviously extremely mean. He was about as big as Vector the Crocodile and Big the Cat.

"Knife, do you have any idea of what time it is?" Shelby asked him.

"Yeah, nighttime! And it's time for some action!"

"No, it's time for you and your pets to get lost and let me get some sleep! This is the third damn night in a row that you've woken us up and I'm getting tired of being patient and nice so I'll give you a choice: get lost and leave us alone now or I come out there and make you leave. Besides, I have more important things to do, like the Iron Queen, finding Sonic and locating the murderer."

I looked at her in surprise.

"Murderer?" I whispered.

"And I suggest ya get out of here because as far as I can tell you guys are gonna be somewhere on the murderer's list in the near future and I don't wanna hafta hear that," Shelby warned.

"Oh yeah, what ya find?" Knife demanded.

"That all of the victims were sexually aroused when they were killed and knowing you Knife you're somewhere on that list."

_Note to self don't get Shelby-chan mad when she's sleep-deprived,_ I thought as I put my goggles on.

"Listen, if you guys are looking for a fight you can fight me because I'm the only one you'll get a fight out of but later, maybe sometime in the afternoon, when I'm actually awake," Shelby continued.

That was when I realized something else about this raccoon/monkey guy: he was climbing the roof up towards us. I let out a small squeak when he climbed closer. Shelby was unfazed though. When he was actually within arm's reach of the window he stopped and I could smell something awful. It stunk so bad that I slapped my hands over my nose and gagged, I have no words to describe it.

"Gack, what is that smell?!" I yelled.

"That my friend," Shelby said as she held her nose, "Is the smell of a sexually aroused male mobian when he's after a female in heat. From the way Knife looks and smells he just left a lady friend after performing the "bed tango" with her."

I looked at Shelby in shock.

"Now then," Knife said loudly, "Why don't we have some fun, a fight, you're little cutie versus me and my boys?"

"If you think I'm going to idly sit by while you and the two D's fight my friend then you've got another thing coming!" she growled loudly although it sounded weird because she was holding her nose.

"Oh yeah, well what are you gonna do about it?" he asked as he pushed his face up close to hers. I thought I would vomit from the smell.

"This!"

She released her nose grabbed Knife by his ears, pulled her head back and head butted him as hard as she possibly could. While Knife was in shock, Shelby gave him a hard shove, causing him to lose his balance and tumble down the roof and off of it. I flinched when I heard a loud crunch and looked out the window.

"Did you kill him?" I asked bluntly.

"Nah, he's taken a heck of a lot worse than that and came out without a scratch," Shelby yawned. "And now I'm going back to sleep."

Shelby closed the window and went back under the covers. I looked out the window again to see Danny and Danni's tails sticking out from under the roof, obviously tending to Knife. Thinking they wouldn't be bugging us for at least a little while I too crawled back under the covers, letting the warmth sooth me and lull me back to sleep.

Less than an hour later the stones were hitting the window again. I could literally sense Shelby's rage coming off of her like a flame. Something told me that she wasn't a one hundred percent hero, maybe seventy-five, seventy-six percent hero the rest being slightly evil. That evil part was making itself known when what felt like the fifteenth stone hit the window.

"If one more stone hits that window I swear I'm gonna-"

Cling.

"That does it!"

She tossed the covered from her and jumped up so that she was standing on the bed. She opened the window and looked out. I looked out as well. Danny and Danni were standing in the open with Knife on the ground in between them.

"If you two aren't at the shoreline by the time I count to ten you both are gonna be in so much pain!" she screamed at them. "One! Two! Three!"

One of them picked up a stone and threw it. It hit Shelby in the forehead.

"TEN!"

She jumped out the window before even yelling the word.

"You skipped six numbers!" I called.

I thought it best to stay put but I decided not to watch. If this got bloody I would only end up throwing up, I couldn't stand the sight of blood. I could hear what sounded like a scuffle, with a few battle cries and cries of pain. I couldn't tell if Shelby was one of them. Shelby had always told me that she tough as a human but did that strength pass over to her new hedgehog body?

Almost a second after I wondered that I heard a loud crack and a yell in stereo.

Maybe I shouldn't have been worrying about Shelby and be a little more concerned for the raccoons she was now fighting. Then I heard a female voice grunt in pain. I stood up and looked out the window.

There was a cartoon esc dust cloud on the ground, with the noises coming from it. Knife was still on the ground and for some reason about six Flickies were flying in a circle above his head. I decided to climb out onto the roof to get a better look. I was careful not to slip on the roof and fall off.

After a few minutes of watching I was finally tired of it and decided to help out my friend. I grabbed the edge of the roof and slipped off so that I was hanging from the roof. I let myself fall and landed in the dew-covered grass. I turned around to see the dust cloud with what looked like large sticks being swung around inside of it. I was hoping the cracking that I heard was the sticks breaking and not bones breaking.

"GAH! STUPID PUSSYCAT!" the yell was in stereo.

"Maybe Shelby-chan doesn't need my help after all," I mumbled to myself.

Then I saw the Flickies flying around Knife's head fly away and he was beginning to stand up. He was approaching the dust cloud and looked like he was going to kill somebody. I had a gut feeling the person he was going to kill was Shelby. That feeling doubled when he reached down, picked up a large stone the size of my head and raised it over his head. It only got worse when the dust cloud faded away to show Danny and Danni holding Shelby by her arms behind her back. I couldn't tell if she was conscious or not but I could see something far worse: blood leaking from a wound on her forehead.

My adrenalin suddenly began to rise. That need to vomit I always got at the sight of blood wasn't there. All I knew at that second was that Shelby needed my help. I followed my instincts, which were loud and clear: stop him.

Before I could even realize what I was doing, I charged at the Knife.

(Shelby)

I cursed in my head. Every curse word I knew, both in English and a few different languages, ran through my mind at least ten times when Danny and Danni had grabbed me. They forced my arms behind my back and to sit on my knees. Knife, that idiot, was now conscious and was obviously pissed. Pardon my language. He was known for his cruelty towards those who manage to out smart him or managed to knock him out. Since I did both I knew I was gonna get it.

When I saw that he had a rock over his head I knew that I was in trouble. I already had one bleeding wound on my head from the branches Danny and Danni had used as weapons and now I was gonna have my skull smashed in. I braced myself for the rock to come crashing down on my head. I was now cussing at myself for not charging up on Chaos Energy when I had the chance, my energy shields wouldn't hold up against Knife's brute strength with what little Chaos Energy I had left.

When Knife was about to bring down the rock he was knocked back by a flash of orange. Knife dropped a rock and it landed right where he had been standing. I then saw who it was that tackled Knife.

"Levi-kun!"

The fox had pushed Knife so hard that he was a good fifteen feet away and Levi was on his feet in a fighting stance. I'm still not sure who was more bewildered, Danny, Danni or I.

When Knife got back up, he looked at Levi with the eyes of a killer. Knife tried to charge him but Levi jumped to the right and then jumped on top of the Knife. The over-sized raccoon thrashed about as he tried to grab Levi who hung on with the skill of a bull rider. Coming out of my amazement, I realized that I still had to escape Danny and Danni to help out Levi. I stomped on their feet closest to me, causing them to let go. Using only a few seconds, I managed to get behind them, grab them by their shoulders and pressed down on the pressure points close to their shoulders with my thumbs. They let out silent cried from the pain and finally I hit them on the pressure points, this time with my fists. They were both knocked unconscious.

With the two goonies out of the way I ran to Levi's aid. Knife was still running around wildly, even bucking like a bull while Levi hung onto strands of Knife's fur for dear life. I knew Levi couldn't hold on forever but Knife was thrashing far too wildly for me to get even close to him. Even if I could he wouldn't stay still long enough either.

"Think Hedgehog, think Hedgehog, think Hedgehog," I mumbled to myself as I tried to come up with an idea.

Then I saw it: hidden in Danny's hiking boot (he was the black raccoon with the gray markings). It was a small pocketknife. That was all I needed. I pulled it from the hiking boot and watched Knife's pattern. He was thrashing about wildly and randomly, I had to be careful if I wanted to stop him long enough for Levi to safely get off. Finally, I had enough when I saw the back of Knife's head smashed into Levi's face. I began to chase after Knife, who was acting like a wild animal from Earth rather than a Mobian.

I finally got lucky when I managed to jump onto Knife's shoulder and sink the knife into his skin. The giant raccoon let out a scream of pain.

"Levi-kun, jump!" I screamed.

I don't think Levi heard me because he didn't move. My instincts told me that he wouldn't be able to let go until Knife stopped thrashing around. So I pulled the knife out of it's place and hit him with it again. Knife screamed again.

_This isn't working,_ I thought.

I remembered the last time I had watched Knife fight. He had been injured so severally you would think he would have already passed out from either pain or blood loss but he didn't, in fact, he was still going strong. That meant that one little pocketknife wasn't going to stop him anytime soon. I was beginning to panic, at the time stopping seemed impossible. I let out a scream of fear when he began bucking again.

"Choa!"

When I heard that cry, I looked up to the window. Mei and Wow had woken up and were now looking out the window. Then I remembered one of the abilities Choa have when they are given a Chaos Emerald: the ability to suck energy out of other beings. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Chaos Emerald I had gotten from Green, Green Island.

"Mei, Wow, sic 'im!" I yelled and threw the emerald.

The two caught the emerald, gave a happy cry and flew out the window. They managed to latch onto Knife's fur, opened their mouths, revealing rows of long, sharp teeth and bit into Knife's shoulder (Mei) and neck (Wow). They began to suck, hence the reason I nicknamed them the Cute Vampires of Mobius. After barely a minute of sucking, Knife slowed down and began to settle. After two minutes, he collapsed from the lack of energy. Once he was on the ground, I managed to relax myself long enough to let go of Knife's fur and stood up. Levi was still hanging onto Knife's fur with his eyes screwed shut.

"Mei, Wow, you can stop now," I told my choa.

They looked up to me with small specks of green energy and blood around their mouths. I walked over to where Levi was still holding on. I tapped him on the shoulder. When I did, he seemed to relax and opened his eyes.

"Levi-kun, it's okay, Knife's down," I sighed.

(Levi)

When I heard those words, I was able to pry my hands open and sat up. I could see Mei and Wow sitting nearby, they had small specks of green stuff around their mouths, blood too. And I could have sworn that I saw small fangs poking out from their mouths. Then I saw that they both had one hand (paw?) on the Chaos Emerald Shelby had shown me.

"Shelby-chan, what happened?" I asked.

She let out a sigh and began to tell me what happened. After I had latched onto Knife she had managed to escape Danny and Danni and knocked both of them out. She then used a knife that she took from Danny and attacked him. She then gave the Chaos Emerald to Mei and Wow and ordered them to attack Knife. I was shocked when she told me about their vampire-like ability that explained the blood around their mouths. At least they only sucked out energy and not blood or life-energy.

"I think I'm scared of choa now," I said as I looked down at the small creatures.

"Don't worry, they don't suck energy out of other creatures unless I say so," Shelby said. "Besides, they can't do it unless they have at least one Chaos Emerald. Now you two go and clean that blood and energy-matter off your faces."

The two saluted her, dropped the emerald and flew back inside through the window.

"Energy-matter?" I asked.

"That was the green stuff around their mouths, when they suck energy out of another creature it turns into energy-matter for them to, well, drink?"

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Why, because of their "eating habits" because I only let them do it when I have to."

"No, blood makes me throw remember?" I groaned as I held my stomach.

That was when she placed her hand on her head and looked down at it. I think she then realized she was bleeding.

"Go ahead Levi-kun, I'll call the Freedom Fighters to pick up Knife, Danny and Danni," she said.

I half-stumbled off to the closest bush and let my stomach empty itself of its contents. After a few moments I left the bush and saw Shelby put what looked like a walkie-talkie into her pocket.

"Sally, Bunnie and Tails are coming out to pick up these idiots," Shelby pointed at the raccoons. "You goona be okay?"

"Yeah, I think so," I said weakly.

"Well, now that Mei and Wow are done with the Chaos Emerald I can use it," she said as she walked to the discarded emerald.

"What do you mean by that?' I asked.

"I have powers, but they have a hitch: they need Chaos Energy to work. Like a flashlight needs batteries to work, I need to charge up on Chaos Energy if I want my powers to work at full power. I haven't charged up in a while and I'm pretty much running on empty, that's why I did so poorly in battle, my powers were disabled, even my energy shields would have failed me, Knife would have smashed right through them."

"Sounds freaky to me," I said.

"Well if I can use the Chaos Emerald to heal myself and others then I'll go for it," she reached down and picked up the Emerald.

She stood up straight and a surge of green energy engulfed her. She turned to me and the wound on her forehead had steam coming from it and was closing on it's own. Once the wound was completely closed, the energy died down.

"Whoa," that was all I managed to get out.

"I can teach you some of the things I know, for future events so you don't have to go charging blindly up against a huge raccoon with an ego problem."

I chuckled.

"I'm serious, there are a bunch of things worse then Knife on Mobius, you'll need to learn a few moves if ya wanna get back home, I learned that the hard way two years ago."

"How'd you learn?"

"An accident that saved my life, Eggman had a gun to my head when my first power, an energy shield, saved me."

"That must have been terrifying."

"It was, but I survived and learned more abilities over time, they really saved my butt and some other people's butts."

What she did next I wasn't ready for.

"Oh, and before I forget," she walked up to me, "I always give a hero his reward for helping me."

She kissed my cheek.

My mind went blank. I felt my cheeks suddenly burn up.

"Levi-kun? Levi?"

She poked my forehead. I fell over backwards.

And the whole time everything was happening, Matt and Nick didn't wake up.


	4. The First Storm

**Disclaimer:** Sega owns Tails, Sally, Omega, the GUN commander and Bunnie, Chintara owns Grey, Baron Von Beef Dip own Nick, Shippo's Ramen owns Levi, Ahardie owns Alex Hardie, my brother owns Matt and I own Shelby, Knife, Danny and Danni.

**Chapter four: The First Storm**

(Shelby)

I looked down at the unconscious fox on the ground. I knew Levi was a nervous mess when it came to girls, especially when it came to confessing to a crush but I didn't think he'd faint from a small peck on the cheek.

"Maybe I shouldn't have kissed him," I told myself as I crouched down next to him. I poked his head again but he gave no response. "Levi-kun, wake up. Levi-kun?" He didn't respond. I began to poke his head and he didn't even budge.

"This sucks," I said rather bluntly.

I turned my attention to Knife, who was on the ground and unresponsive.

"I think you went a little too far with this one," a quiet voice barely whispered.

"I don't need your opinion Hanyu," I groaned.

I looked over my shoulder to see a familiar spirit floating there. She was pure white hedgehog with two sky blue bangs hanging in her sky blue eyes, from her two bangs was a long stripe going back to the end of her spine and down the other side to her other spines. She was wearing a pale red kimono that was pale cream at the shoulders and torso. Instead of the end of a kimono was a ghost tail, further proving her spirit-nature.

"Shelby-chan, is this fox the one you've told me about?" Hanyu asked.

"Yes, he is," I replied, "And he's far braver than I thought he would be, taking on Knife like that, as a friend, I couldn't be more proud."

"Would you like me to wake him?" Hanyu asked.

"Please and thank you," I said.

Hanyu floated down to Levi's side and kneeled down next to him, placed her hands over her chest, pulled a ball of energy out of her chest, placed the ball of energy on Levi and allowed it to sink into his body. Levi's eyes slowly fluttered open but he didn't even see Hanyu, despite her leaning right over him.

"Wha-what happened?' he asked as Hanyu floated away from him.

"You fainted is what happened," I answered.

(Levi)

Shelby-chan was looming over me with a concerned look. I blinked a few times before sitting up. She smiled when I did and cocked her head in a somewhat cute fashion.

'I'm glad you're okay Levi-kun," she said.

She held her hand out to me and I eagerly grabbed it. With what I doubted was a lot of effort on her part she pulled me up and onto my feet.

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem, you're a lot lighter than most Mobians our age."

"I'm _smaller_ than most Mobians out age, Shelby-chan."

"Touche."

"So when did I get knocked out by Knife?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Didn't Knife knock me out?"

"No."

"Then how did I end up-"

"I thanked you for helping me by kissing you on the cheek."

When the word 'kissing' passed her lips I felt myself blushing.

"Ummm, I, uhhhh…'

"I'm guessing I should have just said that Knife knocked you out?"

"Well I uh…"

I felt something land on my head. I looked up to see Shelby's arm extending towards the hand on my head. Her face was extremely pleased, tired but pleased. I blinked a few times when her ear twitched.

"The others are here," she stated before removing her hand and turning her head.

I looked to where she was to see three figures were running through the forest. When they got close enough, I could tell who they were: Princess Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot and Miles "Tails" Prower.

"Mornin' guys," Shelby said.

"Morning? It's not even light out," Tails groaned.

"You know what I mean," the hedgehog sighed with a shake of her head.

As she said that I began to fidget with one of my tails, staring mostly between the ground, my feet and Tails.

"Who's this?" Sally asked as she pointed at me.

"This is Levi, he's a friend of mine," Shelby said as she wrapped her arm around my shoulders.

"Let me guess: he's from Earth too right?" the tired and obviously annoyed princess asked.

"Ding, you are correct princess, please pick your prize," Shelby said sarcastically.

"Your aunt has been making you watch TV game shows with her too much," I mumbled.

"Tell me about it," Shelby growled through clenched teeth.

"Where'd you find him?" Tails asked with a loud yawn.

"Green, Green Island, he was being turned into the local punching bag so I got him out of there ASAP," Shelby explained, "I have no idea why though, Levi's just a big creampuff."

"Hey!"

"You know it's true, you're just sweeter than one."

I blushed at that.

"Well it's nice to meet you," Sally said, "If you're from Earth like Shelby then you probably already know about us."

"That's right," I answered.

"Howdy suga," Bunnie said with a tip of her cowboy hat, "Ah'm Bunnie, nice to meet 'cha."

"Nice to meet you too Bunnie," I said politely.

"And I'm Tails," the kitsune said although obviously tired.

I smiled an excided smile. Tails was my favorite character in the whole series.

"Nice to meet you Tails," I said happily.

"We would have called you once the sun was up but this shiner says that would be a bad idea," Shelby pointed at the wound on her head as she spoke.

"It's good that you did, we'll take them from here," Sally said as she took Nicole from her boot, "Nicole, transport these three back to the city please."

"Yes Sally," Nicole answered.

The raccoons began to glow with what I would later learn were nanobots and then vanish from sight.

'Thank you Nicole, we'll deal with them once the sun is up," Sally told the computer before turning to Shelby, "They shouldn't be bothering you for a while.'

"Thanks Sal, now if you don't mind I'm goin' back to bed," Shelby yawned.

"I think we all will be," the princess agreed.

Shelby began to walk back towards the base but a loud scream cut her off. She literally froze in place before slowly turning around. We all turned towards where the scream came from, which was the forest. The brushes moved wildly as the sounds of something, or someone came tearing through the forest. From a bush came a flash of white and flew straight into Shelby.

However she had been ready for the white flash because right before it crashed into her she dug her feet into the ground and placed her hands in front of her to catch whatever it was. When it stopped and was caught in Shelby's hands I could see that it was obviously a white bat, like Rouge except this one was male. His gloves were white and he had black combat boots. His arms and legs were covered in grey fur while his muzzle and chest were white like the rest of him. The part of him Shelby was holding back was his forehead and his flapping wings told me that he didn't realize he wasn't moving anymore.

'Hey buddy, you can stop now, you're not gonna go any further from where you are," I told him.

"Huh?" came from the bat as he looked up and saw Shelby, "What happened?"

"You flew right into my friend and she stopped you in your tracks," I explained.

"Yeah and if you could be so kind as to stop flapping your wings," Shelby growled with her voice straining. Holding him back must have been harder than it looked.

"Oh sorry," the bat said as he lowered his legs and landed on the ground.

"Damn it those wings of yours are strong," Shelby growled as she rolled her shoulders in obvious annoyance.

"Were you the one who screamed?' Sally asked, now on alert.

"Yeah, that was me," the bat nodded his head and I noticed he had pale blue eyes.

"Why?" Tails and I asked.

"Because there was this huge robot with a bunch of guns," the bat answered, "And he's headed this way!"

Almost like a movie, aloud crashing sound came from the forest. The Freedom Fighters got ready to fight and Shelby pulled back her arm as her fist began to glow with Chaos Energy. I looked around the ground and saw a bloody pocketknife, I would later learn it was the same one Shelby had used against Knife. It was better than nothing so I picked it up and got ready to fight. The bat ducked behind Shelby, the robot must have done something to scare him. Then, from the same bush the bat shot out of, a large form walked out but none of us attacked. The reason being this: we knew the robot.

"Omega!" Shelby cried happily.

The E-series robot walked out of the bush and stopped in front of Sally.

"Greetings Princess Sally," he droned, "It is good to see you."

"It's good to see you too Omega," the princess sighed as she lowered her fists.

"I am here to locate Shelby, I am here with Shadow, he should be along soon," Omega explained.

"Shadow-kun is coming?" Shelby asked in an excided voice.

"Affirmative."

Shelby looked almost ready to start jumping up and down and act all girly, something she almost never did.

"We have a message for Shelby," Omega continued.

"From who?" I asked.

"Commander Towers."

Shelby's excited face froze and then slowly melted away into a scowl.

"Never mind then," she growled.

"Wait, you guys know this robot?" the bat asked.

"Yeah, this is E-123, codenamed: Omega," I answered.

"Tell Towers I want nothing to do with him!" Shelby snapped at Omega.

"Then why did he go after me?" the bat yelled at me.

"We simply wished to ask if you knew where we could find Shelby the Hedgehog," the robot stated.

"There ya go," I said.

"Omega, where are you?"

We all turned towards that same bush the bat and Omega came out of and saw Shadow the Hedgehog came out of it, obviously annoyed.

"Omega, we're never gonna find Okaa-san if you keep-"

Shadow was cut short when he saw all of us, especially Shelby.

"Okaa-san!" Shadow cried happily.

"Shadow-kun!" Shelby cried just as happily.

Shadow almost disappeared except for the burst of wind that all of us. When the wind stopped what I saw shocked me: Shadow was holding Shelby in one of the biggest hugs I've ever seen. Then what Shadow had said sank in.

"Shelby-chan, did Shadow just call you what I think he called you?" I asked weakly.

"Why, do you know what Okaa-san means?" Shadow asked.

"He does actually," Shelby smirked.

The look on Shadow's face was that of pure horror.

"What does it mean?" Sally asked me, "I always thought Okaa-san was just a nickname."

I leaned over to whisper it in her ear when I heard the sound of a gun cocking. I slowly turned my head to look straight into the barrel of Shadow's shotgun.

"You tell her and I'll blow your brains out," Shadow hissed in a voice colder than ice. I think he may have scared the bat as well.

"Shadow, put the gun down now," Shelby ordered him like a mother would when scolding a troublemaking child.

"But Okaa-san he-"

"Can be trusted, he's one of my best friends, Shadow."

Shelby spoke very calmly and very maturely despite Shadow's obvious anger and distrust.

"Shadow, the gun, _now_."

Shadow lowered the gun and I scrambled away from him and ducked behind Shelby. Shadow continued to glare at me but Shelby got between us and gave Shadow a look. I didn't see the look but from the expression on Shadow's face I could tell she was not pleased with Shadow.

"Shadow, this is Levi-kun, he's a very dear friend and he's trustworthy, right Levi?"

"Y-Yeah, I won't tell what Okaa-san means," I quickly said so Shadow wouldn't go after me.

"So you guys want nothing to do with me?" the bat asked.

"No, we just wanted to know if you knew where we could find Okaa-san," Shadow explained.

"Hey, we never got your name," Shelby told the bat, no longer in "mom mode".

"Before asking a person their name it's polite to give your own first," the bat stated, obviously a bit scared of us.

"Good point, I'm Shelby, the fox behind me is Levi, the black and red hedgehog who dropped your gun over his knee is Shadow, the robot is Omega, the chipmunk is Princess Sally Acorn, the cyborg is Bunnie Decoolete the Rabbot and the other fox is Tails," Shelby introduced.

"I'm Andrew Anderson, but call me Grey," the bat said as he cocked his head.

"Okaa-san, we have a message for you from commander Towers," Shadow said.

Shelby was scowling again.

"I already told Omega that I don't wanna hear it," she growled, "I want nothing to do with that bastard."

I was shocked by Shelby's sudden language. She never spoke like that unless she was extremely angry. Whoever this Towers guy was she obviously didn't like him.

"Shelby-chan, who's this Towers guy?" I dared ask.

"The G.U.N. commander."

"The guy with the white hair and different colored eyes?!" I asked in shock.

"That's him."

My jaw dropped, this was the G.U.N. commander from the game Shadow the Hedgehog and if Shelby hated him then there had to be a reason for it.

"Okaa-san would you listen to it for me and Omega, Towers said he'd fire both of us if you don't listen," Shadow almost seemed to beg.

"…Fine, but only for you two, I still hate that bastard's guts."

Omega walked up to Shelby and a panel in his chest flipped open to reveal a screen. The screen turned on and showed static for a few seconds before the face of the G.U.N. commander appeared.

"Shelby Elizabeth Workman the Hedgehog, this is commander Abraham Towers speaking," came from the speakers on both side of the screen, "I offer you the chance to leave the Mobians and join G.U.N. as an agent. We will provide you with more than those filthy Mobians can offer you. We will not take no for an answer."

"I love to disappoint this guy," Shelby said before punching the screen, causing it to crack and show static again, "Sorry 'bout that Omega."

"You really do not like that guy do you?" Grey asked.

"Not in the least," Shelby answered, "I'd love to do all sorts of terrible things to him."

"After watching that I don't blame you," I agreed.

"Shadow, Omega, you guys tell Towers to go and take a hike, I want nothing to do with him or G.U.N. and I never will," Shelby stated in one breath.

"Right, we'll make sure he gets the message," Shadow nodded.

"You better," Shelby growled, obviously still mad.

"Something happen between you two, he you're old boyfriend or somethin'?" Grey asked out of the blue.

"WHAT?! No, Towers is over fifty, I'm only sixteen!" Shelby yelled.

"Sorry, sorry! Tone down the volume, I've got sensitive ears!" Grey yelled.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. Grey had obviously made a big mistake in upsetting Shelby.

"Shadow, we must report back to Commander Towers," Omega droned.

"Yeah. Okaa-san, I'll be back as soon as I can," Shadow said.

"I know you will be," Shelby nodded before kissing Shadow's forehead.

Shadow and Omega were headed back into the woods when the fight was shattered by another scream.

"Now what?" I asked.

The scream came from deeper in the forest and the sound of branches breaking was heard right after it.

"We better investigate," Shelby groaned, obviously wanting to go back to bed.

"Uh, isn't it common sense to run away from screams?" I asked.

"Yeah but I don't have common sense at this ungodly hour," Shelby growled.

"Good point," I agreed.

So with our common sense being left behind we headed into the woods to find the source of the scream. It was about fifteen minutes into the woods when we came upon the area where the scream seemed to have originated.

"Whoever screamed should be around here somewhere," Sally stated as she climbed a tree to get a better look.

"Yeah well let's hurry and find him, I wanna go back to bed," I groaned.

"So do I," Shelby agreed, "Omega, got anything on yer heat sensors?"

"Affirmative, live form located twenty feet from here," Omega droned again.

"Which direction?" Shelby asked.

Omega raised one of his claws and pointed behind her. Shelby walked in said direction and I followed her. Shelby pushed her way through a bush and stopped roughly about where Omega said the person would be.

"There's nobody here Omega!" she yelled.

"Look up."

We looked at each other before looking up and my jaw dropped again. Hanging from a tree was a teenage boy about our age and he wasn't a Mobian, he was a human. He had dark brown hair, a grey t-shirt, brown pants and a black trench coat. Even though he was twenty feet in the air I could tell he had amber eyes.

"Omega it would have been nice to know he was also twenty feet in the air too!" Shelby called.

"You did not ask that."

One of Shelby's veins twitched at that before she turned to look at the teenage boy again. She squinted at first before calling up him,

"Alex, is that you?"

"Shelby is that you?" the boy called back down in a British accent.

"No, it's Bugs Bunny, of course it's me ya big palooka!" Shelby called back up.

'Well, what are you doing back here?"

"The Iron Queen happened, what are you doing hanging up in a tree?"

"I was being attacked and got outnumbered so I needed to make a quick escape," the boy, Alex, answered.

"Is Eve with you?"

'Yep."

"Can you get down on your or do you need help?'

"Uhhhh…"

"I'll take that as "I need some help". Hang on ya palooka I'm coming!"

What happened next shocked me: the muscles on Shelby's back began moving in a strange way when two things tore out of her back. Those two things were a pair of bat wings. I took a few steps away. This had to be one of the powers she didn't get around to telling me. She flapped her wings and began to fly towards Alex. She grabbed him and slowly floated back to the ground.

"Hope you don't mind be saved by me for a change," she laughed.

"Nah, it's a nice change," Alex smirked.

When Shelby placed Alex on the ground he looked down at me, blinked and asked,

"Who's he?"

"That's Levi, he's one of my closest buds," Shelby said proudly.

"Is he from Earth?" Alex asked.

"Yep, he already knows I've been here before, I haven't told him any details though," Shelby said.

"Shelby-chan, you know this guy?!" I asked as I pointed at him.

"Yeah, Levi, this is Alex Hardie, he was here the last time I was here," Shelby said.

Alex looked down at me in what was obvious distrust.

"Alex, don't stare!" Shelby snapped.

"Sorry," he said.

"Don't mind him, he's always like this when he meets someone new," Shelby explained as she pushed Alex out of her way.

"Hey!"

"Alex if you don't shut up and leave Levi-kun alone I'm gonna let you have it," Shelby stated firmly.

"You can't threaten me!" Alex snapped.

"I believe I just did and if you don't leave Levi-kun alone, I'm gonna find a way to kill immortals so I can kill you!"

"Immortals?" I asked.

"Alex is immortal, created from the two essences Rage and Oblivion and he's paranoid about anyone knowing," Shelby smirked.

"Shelby!"

"What? I trust Levi."

"Yeah well I don't!"

"Sucks to be you then."

"Why you little-"

"Why me little what?"

"Come here you!"

Much to my shock (when will my shock end?) blades sprouted from Alex's fingers, surprisingly devoid of blood. He began slashing at Shelby, whose eyes were now emerald green, and she was dodging each slash with surprising ease. That must have been the Sonic genes kicking in.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, Alex, I thought you were faster than this!" Shelby taunted.

"Hold still and I'll shred ya!" Alex yelled.

Shelby blew him a raspberry before doing a back flip (since when could she do that?) and using her wings, jumped up into a tree. Alex glared up at her and yelled,

"Get down here!"

"Not happening!" Shelby snapped.

"If you don't come down, I'll come up!"

From Alex's back, black tentacles sprout out and they wrapped themselves around the tree and began to climb it. My jaw, which was probably detached from my skull by now, was hanging open. What in the world was going on?

(Alex)

Damn that Shelby, she just loves to get under my skin!

"What's wrong Alex, losing your touch?" she called before jumping into another tree.

"Come here you!" I yelled.

"Careful, you might break somethin'!" she taunted.

Being honest, I wasn't angry, just annoyed. She was almost the opposite of what she was when we first met for the first time. Back then, two years ago, three this coming winter, she was a bit of a coward and doubted herself a great deal. Now it was like she had become a reflection of her former self.

"Come on Alex I'm getting bored here!" Shelby laughed as she jumped back.

Despite it being the middle of the night she seemed happy, happier and more energetic than she had been. Her eyes, which were dull and sad when we first met, were now bright and alert and would probably be more so once the sun came up.

"Alex-kun, if you don't pick up the pace I'm gonna-"

The branch she had landed on suddenly snapped under her feet and she fell. I had learned from before that if she fell on her back her wings couldn't hold her up because they were curved with the ends pointing in front of her, they weren't meant to hold her up on her back. Unless she managed to roll over on her stomach while falling and opened her wings like parachutes she would hit the ground.

"Shelby-chan!" I heard someone yell.

I jumped to the ground to be ready to catch Shelby (and maybe give her a nooige) but before I could even reach the tree she had fallen out of Levi beat me there. Shelby landed on him with a cloud of dust kicking up when she hit. When I went to investigate I saw them Levi was clinging to Shelby, probably caused by instinct, and both of them were cringing in pain.

"Ow, that hurt," Shelby groaned as she sat up.

"I second that," Levi groaned as well.

"Ah! I'm so sorry Levi-kun!" Shelby cried as she jumped off Levi.

"It's okay," he groaned softly as he sat up, "Ow."

"Cripes, you both okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Levi said as he scratched his cheek.

"A little sore but I'm okay," Shelby nodded.

I sighed in relief. The last thing I needed was to worry about two injured mortals.

"Um Shelby-chan, why didn't you use your wings stop falling?" Levi asked somewhat nervously. He obviously didn't know about the wings.

"Let's talk about it later, like when the sun is up?" Shelby asked, showing how tired she was in her voice.

"Hey!"

I turned to see Princess Sally, Bunnie, Tails, Shadow, Omega and a bat I didn't recognize come running through the forest.

"Alex?' Sally asked as she skidded to a halt.

'Hey there princess," I smiled with a wave.

"Well Ah'll be a puppy dog, longtime no see," Bunnie said as she raised her hat.

"Hi Bunnie," I replied probably with a too happy look on my face.

"*Yawn* Hi Alex, long time no see," Tails yawned.

"Hey there Tails," I smirked.

As usual, Shadow and Omega didn't talk to me.

"So, why are you guys up at this terrible time of night? I doubt you were even aware o my arrival," I smirked.

"Knife and his two followers decided to give us an unwanted wake up call," Shelby groaned with tears running down her cheeks, it was like she was in one of those anime she likes. Was that a new ability she gained?

"They woke us up by throwing rocks at our window," Levi said before letting out a loud yawn.

"Wait, "our"? You guys were sleeping in the same room?" I asked.

"Yeah, we were… Wait a minute where the hell are Matt and Nick, didn't they wake up from all the noise?!" Shelby snapped as she looked around wildly.

"I don't think they woke up," Levi said.

"Those jerks! We're getting turned into hamburger meat while they're sawing logs!"

"So much for being tired," Levi chuckled.

"Nah, once she vents that energy will disappear," I said, remembering a few past incidents.

"Lil Suga, maybe you shouldn't get so mad, ya'll are bleein' after all," Bunnie said as she tried to calm down Shelby.

"No way, I'm gonna get those two lazy bums for this! And I thought I could rely on them!" Shelby yowled.

"Wait, what do you mean Shelby's bleeding?" I asked.

"Aunt Bunnie's talkin' about the cut on Aunt Shelby's forehead," Tails explained with another yawn.

I pushed Levi out of my way, grabbed Shelby by the arm and checked her forehead. In the faint moonlight I could barely see afresh wound between her left eye and ear.

"Alex, it's nothing, I'm fine, really," she said before I could.

"How'd you get it exactly?" I asked.

"Danni hit me with a tree branch, I'm fine," Shelby explained, "It could have been worse."

"Knife tried to bash her head in with a rock," Levi added.

"What?!" I asked.

"I stopped him," Levi quickly said.

I didn't respond to Levi, I was more concerned about Shelby.

"Alex, stop worrying, I may be mortal but not all head wounds will kill us," Shelby chuckled.

"That doesn't help," I said.

"Alright, I'll prove to you I'm fine," she stated with a determined voice.

"How do you plan on doing that?" I asked.

"Like this: HIYA!"

The next thing I knew I was being thrown over a hedgehog's shoulder. It didn't hurt but it did surprise me. So yeah, she was fine.

"Yeah, that's one of the reasons why she's letting me sleep in the same as her, she could kick my butt," Levi said as he loomed over me.

"Yeah but that didn't hurt me, I'm immortal and indestructible," I replied.

Levi looked a bit bewildered.

"If you want proof I can-"

"**DON'T DO THE TONGUE THING!"**

That was yelled by Shelby and the Freedom Fighters, only Sally, Nicole, Iris and Shelby knew about the incident, info must have been leaked. The bat and Levi both had their hands of their ears and looked a bit disturbed. They were the only clueless ones at the time.

'Ugh, alright, I won't show," I groaned, "But it does make me hungry thinking about it."

"**ALEX!"**

I laughed to myself at their reaction, they hated that trick so much.

"Alex-kun," Shelby said in a sneaky voice, the one she used when she wanted something.

"Yes, what is it?" I asked.

"…HUG ATTACK!"

She stuck herself to me like glue and I might as well have melted. I hated it when she did that, hugging me always made me melt like a big piece of butter and the one hugging me was the heat that did the melting.

"Alex-kun, please don't do the tongue thing, it's _SO_ scary!" she squealed as if she were a cat.

'You're not fooling me, you're not that big of a coward," I stated as I struggled to keep myself together.

"But Levi-kun won't be able to take it, I barely could!"

Damn, now she was starting to go "innocent little girl asking for an ice cream cone" on me. I'd have to get her for it later, maybe show her the tongue thing twice.

"Shelby, if you don't stop-"

BOOM!

I suddenly became aware of the storm clouds that were starting to roll in. I seriously hoped they weren't ominous, I had learned in the past that these things could lead to all sorts of things.

"Um, I think it's time we got inside before it rains," Shelby suggested.

"I second it," I said happily.

I loved it when she read my mind sometimes.

"I agree, let's get back to the city," Sally told the other Freedom Fighters.

"Levi and I are gonna go back to our base," Shelby added, "Hey Alex, you want a roof over your head or would you prefer a cave?"

"Hm, a cave does sound nice…"

"But it doesn't have heating, running water, hot showers and a hot spring."

"We have a hot spring?" Levi asked.

"There are a couple things I didn't get around to showing you," she explained as she rubbed the back of her head.

BOOM!

"Okay, that sounded a little too close!" Shelby yelled as she jumped into the air.

I snickered as her fur stood on end. Her fear of storms was always amusing, especially when she jumped in fright.

"Um, can I, uh…"

The bat was stuttering madly and fidgeting with his thumbs.

"What is it Grey?" Shelby asked knowingly.

"Well um… I was just wondering if I could stay with you two, I-I mean, I can tell that this storm is gonna be bad and I don't have anywhere to go," the bat, "Grey", stuttered.

"Hm, well I don't think-"

"Sure why not?" Shelby cut me off.

"Really?" Grey asked with his ears now perked.

"Shelby!" I snapped.

"What? He looks harmless enough, my instincts aren't going off," she stated, completely calm.

Damn it, her instincts, she always listened to those, logic and her heart more than anything else, you could never sway her from the decision she comes to after listening to all of them… well maybe not never.

"Shelby-chan, let's get going, I'm getting this weird feeling we're not alone," Levi said as he tugged on her arm.

"We're not, we need to get back to the base," Shelby stated tensely, she obviously sensed something that I didn't, "We'll talk later Sally, Grey, you can come with us and I don't think Alex needs to be invited."

"No I don't," I said with a shake of my head, "What's going on exactly?"

"No time to explain," Sally said, "I'll call this afternoon Shelby. Freedom Fighters move."

Sally led Bunnie, Tails, Shadow and Omega away. They knew something was wrong and so did Shelby. Whatever it was, they obviously scared and tense about whatever it was. It had to be a mortal thing.

"Let's move, I've got a bad feeling," Shelby ordered sternly as she began to walk away, whatever they were sensing it was obviously dangerous.

Levi and Grey looked at each other and followed Shelby. I hung back, wanting to study the two other males, especially Levi. Shelby said they were sleeping in the same room. If this fox did anything I would make sure he regretted ever meeting Shelby. As what looked like a large house appeared through the trees, Shelby stopped suddenly.

"What is it Shelby-chan?" Levi asked nervously.

Shelby's quills were beginning to rise. That was never a good sign.

"Move!" she snapped suddenly.

"W-What?" Levi stuttered.

"Run hurry!"

Levi tripped, got up and ran like his tails were on fire. Grey ran and then started to fly towards the door. Shelby was right behind them and I was running next to her.

"What's going on?' I asked.

"Demon!" Shelby replied.

"Demon? Who's Demon?" I asked.

"Not someone named Demon, an actual demon!" she yelled back.

"Say what?!"

I looked over my shoulder and could barely see a black creature chasing us. It had no eyes that I could see but it was obviously frightening, even to me. I had never gone up against a demon before, other than my own of course, so I wasn't tempted to try and fight it, especially with three mortals being too close.

"Calcifa, get up the barrier!" Shelby yelled at the house.

"Who are you talking to?" I asked.

"You'll see."

When we were ten feet away from the house, I sensed running through something extremely powerful. Levi and Grey couldn't stop in time and crashed into the wall while Shelby made a small jump and made a 180 turn so she was looking at the demon, I slowed down and turned around, ready to fight. The demon hit something that shined bright blue, an energy field or sorts. With it hitting the energy field, I could see it's body now and it looked like something out of a Hayao Miyazaki film. It had a huge oval-shaped head on a small stick-thin neck and had about six to ten legs on its body, which were throwing the demon against the energy field. Probably the most disgusting thing about the demon was that it was dripping black goop that was starting to form puddles in the grass. The creature opened its huge mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth and let out an unearthly screech. We all covered our ears and flinched at the sound. Nails on a chalkboard were like wind chimes compared to this noise.

"Calcifa, do somethin'!" Shelby yelled.

"Alright, alright!" an echoing voice answered.

"Listen to me carefully!" Shelby yelled over the noise, "When I give the signal, jump as high as you can and get on the roof! If you don't, you'll regret it!"

I looked around, trying to find out what the heck she was talking about. At the very base of the house, where it connected with the dirt and grass, blue energy was gathering. Something was about to release an energy attack!

"**JUMP NOW!"**

Shelby jumped first, followed by Levi, Grey and myself. The look on Levi's face was priceless. He obviously was new to being a Mobain and being able to jump as high as we did. Shelby landed on the roof followed by Grey and then me, Levi missed. Shelby dived the roof and caught Levi by the wrist before he hit the ground. Grey and I were at her sides, looking down, Levi was also looking at the ground. The energy that had been building up was so bright now that it could blind someone if they looked at it long enough. The energy was then released like a ripple and passed unharmed by the energy field and then hit the demon, sending it flying into the forest.

"Nicely done Calcifa!" Shelby called as she pulled Levi onto the roof.

"Huh, great, can I go back to sleep now?" the echoing voice asked.

"Sure."

The voice vanished and I looked into the direction where the demon vanished. Just what was going on?

"Shelby-chan what was that thing?" Levi asked.

"It was a demon," Shelby answered coldly, "It smelled us and probably wanted to make us its next meal."

"A d-d-demon?!" Levi exclaimed.

'Yes," Shelby nodded, "They're getting braver, they rarely ever go close to a house with a cherry blossom branch in or on it."

"A cherry blossom branch?" Grey asked.

"They repel demons better than anything else, even a small twig will protect a house this size. I went and got a few handfuls of decent sized branches the other day and placed them in a jar with water, they work best if you keep them alive."

"Where'd you learn that?" I asked.

"Chaos and Tikal told me," Shelby lied.

She was a terrible liar but I was the only one who noticed since Levi and Grey were a bit freaked out.

"Let's get inside, I don't wanna get caught in the rain," Shelby said as she stood up and walked to an open window.

I looked to the forest again, something very wrong was happening but I didn't know what.

"Alex, hurry up!" Shelby called from the window.

"I'm coming!" I called right before a roll of thunder was heard.


	5. Our New Home

**DISCLAIMER:** Shippo's Ramen owns Levi, Ahardie owns Alex, Chintara owns Grey, Baron Von Beef Dip owns Nick, my brother owns Matt and I own Shelby and Calcifa.

**Chapter five: Our New Home**

(Levi)

I'm not sure how long we were asleep but we may as well have been dead when we fell asleep, well, where most of us fell asleep. I didn't sleep during the storm I never had been able to sleep when one was raging, heck, the trains that ran past my house kept me awake at night. With Alex boring his burning gaze into my shoulders I hadn't dared to even look at the bed, I think he didn't trust me. After releasing that same scary aura I had felt went Danni and Danny were throwing stones at our window we all agreed to go to bed at once, Alex was completely unaffected by the aura though. He was extra scary from that moment on.

FLASH! BOOM!

I nearly jumped out of my fur that time, the storm was right over us. The thunder and lightning was less than five seconds apart from each other and then repeated less then ten seconds after that. No way was I going to be getting any sleep for a while.

"Man, this sucks," I groaned.

Because of Alex's aura, I decided to sleep on the floor so I could keep my insides inside of me. There were futons and sleeping bags in the chest at the far end of the room so sleeping on the floor wasn't so bad. Alex had been firm about us sleeping on the floor (or ceiling in Grey's case) while Shelby slept on the bed. Alex even went so far as sleeping right next to the bed, almost like a guard dog would sleep near whatever it was he was guarding. Something told me if one of us stepped out of the very thin line he had laid out for us he would be on top of us in a matter of seconds.

"Don't worry about Alex, he's only like this when he doesn't know someone too well and they're really close to one of his friends."

I blinked and sat up at the sound of Shelby's voice. I looked at the bed and Shelby was sitting up, awake and obviously annoyed.

"You're still up?" I asked.

"Meh, this storm is keeping me up. I swear, anyone who can sleep through something like this has to be a rock," she groaned as she removed the covers, "C'mon, I'm gonna introduce you to Calicfa."

"Calcifa?"

"He's the one who sent out that energy pulse earlier, he protects the house when something tries to break in."

She got up from her bed before looking down at Alex, who was asleep at her feet.

"Alex, I know you're awake so if you try to follow us I'm gonna spike your breakfast with magic powder and I for one wouldn't want you to end up getting sick just because someone added a little something to your food," she growled.

Alex didn't move. Shelby placed her foot on Alex's chest and walked over him like it was nothing.

"Um, why did you do that?" I asked a bit nervous.

"He's indestructible, me using him as a doormat won't do anything to him, unlike the _magic powder _would," she answered, straining the "magic powder" part.

"What is it about this magic powder stuff anyway?" I asked as I followed her to the stairs.

"His weakness is magic, it makes him melt into a puddle of biomass, I've seen it happen before a couple of times," Shelby explained.

"Ugh, that sounds gross," I shuddered.

"It is, but you get used to if it after a while, although some of the things he does take longer than others to get used to."

"Like what?"

"You'd never believe me if I just told you, ya hafta see 'em to believe 'em."

"Shelby-chan, if you told me one day before I came here that any of this would happen I wouldn't have believed you."

"True, but what Alex does is still hard to believe."

I decided to change the subject it was obvious Shelby couldn't talk about Alex easily.

"Um, can you tell me about Calcifa?" I asked.

"Calcida huh? Well wadda ya wanna know?" she asked.

"Well, why he has such a weird name?"

"Well, for starts he's a demon."

"A demon?'

"Yeah, but not like the one that we saw earlier, that was a shadow demon, as far as demons go those are some of the more nasty ones. Calcifa is a fire demon and like most demons, he didn't have a name, so I named him. I was reading the story of King Arthur so I decided to give him a name similar to Caliburn."

"Don't you mean Excalibur?"

"No, I read somewhere that the sword's name was originally Caliburn, Excalibur is the American name."

I was now confused.

"Well why is Calcifa here anyways?" I asked.

"He's the main power source for the base, Tails built special energy gathering machines so that Calcifa's fire can be turned into the energy we use in the base. The electricity, water heater, defenses, just about everything that needs energy works thanks to Calcifa," Shelby explained as we entered her library.

"Does he look anything like that thing we saw?"

"Oh no, fire demons look nothing like shadow demons. Most fire demons are just fires with eyes and a mouth, if they don't get fuel or get water dumped on them they go out, so we placed Calcifa in the basement, he's safest from water down there."

"It's waterproof?"

"Yep, we have the brain trust to thank for that."

I headed for the door that we had entered the library through but Shelby walked past it.

"Um, aren't we going down to the basement?" I asked.

"Yeah but I never take that door to get outta here, if I did, Matt would be able to get up here since I wouldn't be able to lock it," she explained.

"Then how do we get out?"

"Over here, there's a different door."

About ten feet behind the door we had used to get inside there was another door, it was also built into the floor. Shelby opened it and when I looked down it dropped down into the family room.

"Hoo boy, I always hate this," Shelby sighed.

Oh no. She doesn't mean…

Shelby slipped down with her legs hanging out of the door and then slipped down. She landed on one of the couches, which had amazingly moved under her to catch her. From the couch I heard a loud sigh and Shelby turned over so she was sitting on her knees and waved up at me. I gulped, took in a deep breath and jumped after her. I landed in a recliner that had moved under the hole.

"Okay, how did that happen?" I asked.

"It's magic," Shelby answered, "I cast a spell over the hole that whoever went through it would be caught by one of the pieces of furniture."

"Magic?" I asked slowly.

"Yep, there's quite a bit of it here, so I decided to use it when I can."

"But where'd you learn-"

"Cream taught me a few things."

"Cream?!"

"Yeah, you've played Sonic Chronicles right?"

"Yeah."

"Well those cheers she does are actually spells that she casts."

"…Cream can cast spells?"

"Well she does come from a family of spell casters, last I heard she was learning how to fly on a broomstick."

I didn't know what to say. I simply got up and followed Shelby down a hall with a few doors on both sides. She came to a stop after we reached a dark brown door. Shelby opened the door and it disappeared into darkness. She reached to the wall and flipped a switch. A light bulb over our heads, causing both of us to hiss in pain at the light as our pupils dilated. I could see a set of stairs leading downwards, probably into the basement, a second light bulb hung on the ceiling above the base of the steps.

"Come on, Calcifa is down there," Shelby groaned as she lead the way.

"Hey! I heard that!" came from the basement.

"You were supposed to!" Shelby yelled down to him.

We began our decent down into the basement, while Shelby and "Calcifa" continued to yell at each other. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Shelby turned left into what was literally a hole with cement walls, well, bricks with a thin layer of cement on them.

"Calcifa, stop yelling and there's someone I wanna introduce ya to!" Shelby screamed.

We rounded a corner and there was a large half-oval platform about waist-height against the wall and above it was a chimney. On the platform was a fire burning above three logs. At first I thought it was just a trick of the light but it was there for sure. The fire had a face, two black eyes and a scowling mouth.

"Levi, this is Calcifa, Calcifa, this is Levi," Shelby said quickly.

"Um…"

How do you greet a fire demon?

"Hey buddy, you just gonna stand there with your mouth gaping or what?"

Wow. He's casual.

"Yo Shelby, is he the powerful one I sensed come in here an hour ago?" Calcifa asked.

"No, it's Alex, he's back," Shelby answered.

"ALEX?! That maniac's back?! Why the hell'd you let him in here?!" Calcifa yelled, revealing a tongue made of green flames.

"Because I can and he's my friend and should be enough reason for you," Shelby nodded.

"ARE YOU CRAZY! Alex is a dangerous immortal! Rage and Oblivion will _**KILL YOU!**_ He tore you in two once, who's to say he won't do it again?!"

That struck a cord not with Shelby, but with me. Whoever these guys were I didn't want to see them or even let them come close to my friends.

"Shelby-chan… you were torn in half?" I could barely get the words out of my mouth.

"It's nothing you need to worry about Levi, Alex put me back together and revived me, he's saved my life more times than I know about and that's just one of the many reasons why I trust him," Shelby sounded real serious when she said that.

"You're crazy you know that," Calcifa said, "If you had a lick of sense you'd kick Alex out before something happens. Those two will kill you then eat you, no questions asked!"

"I know that and I'm still not scared of either of them. They've never scared me and they never will," Shelby growled.

"Huh, it's your funeral!"

As the two bickered I looked around the basement. It was cold and dry, safe for the fire demon that made a small warm and comfortable spot in the room. It was interesting, to say the least. After another ten minutes in the basement we left and returned to the attic. Those wings I had seen earlier that morning opened up and Shelby flew us back up through that opened door in the ceiling. She closed it behind us and then locked it tightly.

"If Alex was watching us, he is so gonna get it," Shelby told me as the last lock clicked shut.

"I didn't see or hear him." I shrugged, "You're starting to sound paranoid."

"He can become intangible so he would be able to escape without us seeing him," Shelby said as she stood up and headed towards the staircase.

"He can?" I asked.

"Yep, I've also seen him eat metal, oil, his own body parts, lemme see what else…"

"Ugh, how is he alive?"

"He's immortal so he-"

"DON'T CALL ME IMMORTAL!"

"…He hates when someone calls him that."

She said it so plainly and calmly that it was disturbing.

When we got into the room Grey was still hanging from the ceiling, the choa were asleep under the covers and Alex was on the floor. I looked at Shelby was staring hard at Alex and she looked angry.

"Alex I know you followed us," she growled.

No response.

"Alex, you're in a different position from the one you were in when we left."

"So he rolled in his sleep, that doesn't prove-"

"His feet were at the foot of the bed, now they're pointed to the pillows."

I looked and she was right.

"Alex, get up now or I'll separate your head from your body and lock both of them in separate safes locked via magic!"

Alex rolled over, looked at Shelby and flicked her off.

"And I thought my little third-cousins were cranky when they were tired," Shelby growled while she tapped her foot.

Alex let out a strange hiss, showing a bunch of razor sharp teeth and a forked tongue. I would have screamed if Shelby-chan didn't hiss back. Alex wasn't the only person who was cranky.

"I'll deal with you in the morning," Shelby growled as she dragged me past Alex and to the bed.

"Stupidhead," he growled sounding a lot like Stitch from the Disney series.

"Takes one ta know one," Shelby growled before pulling the blankets over us.

I could have sworn I could hear growling coming from both of them. I managed to doze off as the storms both inside and outside quieted and settled.

(Alex)

It was about nine when I heard Shelby getting out of bed. She looked half-asleep and dragged herself out of her room. I stayed on the floor under after she was in the kitchen I listened long and hard until I heard the sound of stairs stop squeaking. Once I heard the sound of a refrigerator opening and closing I got up and became transparent before slipping through the first two floors and made my feet solid so I could walk but I made sure I was silent. I walked slowly down the stairs and saw Shelby setting up what looked like breakfast.

"What in the world are ya doin'?" I asked.

Shelby yelped and dropped the two eggs she was holding along with the bacon. My tongue stretched out and caught them with ease. I held them up to her and a sheepish smile appeared on my face. She looked extremely annoyed, she got that look under only one condition: she hadn't had her morning cup of coffee yet.

"Uh, sorry?" I asked.

She snatched the eggs and bacon off my tongue, cracked both eggs at once and threw five strips of bacon onto two frying pans. I think I saw her eyes turn crimson red as she watched me out of the corner of her eye.

"So uh, I take it you cook breakfast?" I asked.

"Not like I don't do that and everything else around here," she half-growled, half-grumbled.

"What was that?" I asked, my ears perked.

'Oh, nothing, just that I've been doing every damn chore around here!"

"You're freaking kidding right?"

"Tell me, do you honestly think that two teenage boys are going to listen to one of their peers telling them to sweep, mop, dust and polish? As if especially when one of those boys is her little brother. So I'm stuck playing early 1900's housewife!"

There was a long stony silence.

"Want me to eat them for you?" I asked.

"No but I want you to do the tongue thing," she hissed.

Ah, the tongue thing, that was one of my favorite ways of disturbing people.

"So, Matt's here?" I asked.

"As much as I wished he wasn't."

"Well what about that Levi guy? He doesn't look like the kind to let you do all the work."

"What? Oh no, Levi got here just yesterday the other guy I was taking about was Nick. He's here too."

"Oh no. I don't think my sanity could take it," I groaned.

I had spied on Shelby during my slower days while she was at school, it gave me something to do and it was entertaining to watch their crazier- than-average antics. It killed time but it allowed me to witness Nick's behavior and when I overheard her saying she had been dealing with him for eight years her lapses into sudden temporary insanity began to make sense to me. Now she was living under the same roof as him, her brother and that new guy.

"I smell bacon!"

I looked at the staircase to see a black and green armadillo. His voice was familiar, it was that pain in the ass brother of Shelby's. He made a one hundred eighty degree turn to the right, to where I couldn't see. After about a minute, he came back, took one look at me and said,

"Who's the human?"

"Alex, he's a friend of mine, don't piss him off, he'll kill ya otherwise," Shelby answered.

"Ha, yeah right!"

His obnoxious, arrogant lifestyle always made my blood steam. I guess being his sister having to have dealt with him all his life Shelby could tolerate him better than I could. The part that really got me was when he started going on about his latest girlfriend he was a middle school pimp, minus the sex and violence. The fact that he had been at it since pre-school, when it was simple childhood crushes, kinda got under my skin, considering the fact that his sister, three years, seven months, four days older hadn't so much as gone on a date yet.

"Bacon please," Matt said as he held a plate to Shelby.

Shelby put the bacon on his plate with the spatula, followed by an egg.

"Set up the counter," she told him.

Matt opened a cabinet, took a few plates out, put them on the counter and then vanished back behind the stairs. Shelby then took a loaf of bread out of a different cabinet, took two slices of bread and placed them in the toaster. She then returned to the frying pan.

"Is it always like this in the morning?" I asked.

"Wish it wasn't," she answered, "Most they've done is made a few pieces of toast and put butter, peanut butter or jam on 'em."

"Lazy bums."

"Tell me about it."

Five minutes later, a large, two-tailed fox with brown spots over his eyes, took two slices of toast, took peanut butter from the pantry, smothered it on the toast and vanished around the corner. Shelby shot probably one of her nastiest glares at him as he walked away. As she made more bacon, eggs and toast, she piled them onto one of the plates Matt had gotten out. It was almost like a small buffet.

Levi and Grey came down together Levi was a few steps ahead of Grey. Shelby gave them a small nod before returning to the pan. Levi, even though I could hear his stomach growling, walked to Shelby, took the spatula, pan and took over making breakfast.

"I got it Shelby-chan you go eat," he offered, "From the looks of it, you've already made enough."

"Arigotou Levi-kun, arigotou," Shelby said before going over to a black coffee brewer and turned it on.

She then went on to prepare some French toast for herself. By the time she was done, the coffee was made, she poured herself a cup and then I followed her around the staircase with Gray right behind me. It was an area that had a large table with six chairs. Nick and Matt were already there, stuffing their faces with what was left with almost empty plates. They would be going back for more.

"Sis, what are you doing here?" Matt asked through a mouthful of egg, "And who's the bat?"

"Levi's taking care of the cooking and his name is Gray, he and Alex got here last night while you two were sleeping through all the action. How do ya think I got this shiner, falling out of bed?" she asked as she pointed at the healing wound on her forehead.

"Yeouch," Matt hissed at the sight.

"Yeah, you two were sleeping through the whole thing, you both missed Levi in action, he really showed courage out there," Shelby said.

"Yeah, whatever," Matt said as he bit into a piece of bacon.

Levi came around the corner a few minutes later. His plate was stacked just as high as Matt and Nick's but when he was eating, he showed more manners than the other two.

"So what we miss last night?" Nick asked.

"Just the neighborhood scumbags rearing their ugly heads and causing trouble, Grey being scared out of his pelt by Shadow and Omega, Alex getting stuck in a tree, a shadow demon trying to turn us into a midnight snack, nothing important really."

"Aw man, I missed Shadow?! Why didn't you wake me?" Matt yelled.

"Because I'd rather fight Chaos then wake you up."

"You only say that because you can swim," Nick groaned.

"S.T.F.U. Nick."

Yeah, she needed her coffee.

"So what are we gonna do today?" Matt asked.

"First of all you're gonna clean up the training room and fix that punching bag you broke yesterday!" Shelby said as she wagged her fork at him.

"What? No way!"

"You broke it, you clean up the mess and fix it."

"You're not the boss of me!"

"No but I'm in charge because I'm the responsible one and between you and Nick, I'm the only one with both brains and muscles."

"You're not that strong!"

"Have you even broken a board? Gave a guy a bloody nose? Took a hard blow to the face?"

"No, but that doesn't make you tougher than me!"

"You want me to eat him for you Shell?" that was Alex.

"No, just scare 'im."

"The tongue thing, please?"

"…Go ahead."

I carefully wrapped my tentacles around her waist and looked up. Perfect, there were rafters she could sit on while I did the tongue thing. I carefully lifted her up and placed her on the rafter, she was holding her plate in one hand and her coffee mug in the other.

"Send Grey and Levi up, I don't want them to see just yet!" she called.

I looked at them and they shrugged. Grey flew up and Levi simply jumped, grabbed the rafter (he had one hell of a jump) , pulled himself on and sat next to Shelby.

"Begin the tongue thing!" she said it like it was the beginning of the Olympics.

Matt and Nick looked at me, probably not expecting much. I gave them a long smirk and opened my mouth. I stuck out my tongue, grabbed it and began pulling. Like a cartoon, my tongue began to stretch several feet until it was more than five feet long. I smirked and the real freakiness began. I opened my mouth wider, allowing them to see my teeth literally turn into knife-like points. They began to turn pale and then I sank my teeth into my tongue and cut it off. I let it fall. Matt looked horrified and Nick looked like he was ready to puke. I opened my mouth again and allowed my tongue to grow back. They became a little paler. And finally, I tossed the old tongue into my mouth and began chewing. Matt fainted while Nick ran for the trashcan when I swallowed.

There was a bang behind me and when I looked, Levi had fainted and Grey fell right next to him.

"I'd say that worked very well," came from the rafters.


	6. A Spy

**Sorry that this chapter isn't so good but SOMEBODY, wouldn't stop nagging me about updating.**

**Disclaimer:** Ahardie owns Alex and Eve, Shippo's Ramen owns Levi, Baron Von Beef Dip owns Nick, Chintara owns Grey, Auramasterr724 owns Jose, my brother owns Matt and I own Shelby.

**Chapter six: A Spy**

(Shelby)

It's impossible to deny that Alex's abilities are shocking at first but you get used to it. I had to tell the others that while they either stopped puking or woke up after fainting. The look on Matt's face when he saw Alex after waking up was too perfect. I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

"I knew you hung out with weirdos sis but this is a whole new level of freakiness even for you," Matt said weakly as he struggled back to his feet.

"Careful Matt, Alex listens to what I say but once he starts it's nearly impossible for my to stop him," I smirked.

"She's not kidding," Alex said as he flashed his knife-like teeth.

"He could possibly eat you if he wanted."

"No he couldn't!"

"You're talking about the man who can eat his own limbs and then grow them back."

"That's impossible!"

"So is the tongue thing and you just saw that happen, hell, he should be screaming from his tongue being cut off and bleeding to death."

"And how do you explain the knives for teeth?" Alex asked.

Matt went quiet.

"Alex defies the laws of physics, how he does it: He's just awesome that way!" I proclaimed.

Okay that was a lie, I had no idea how his powers worked all I knew was that they just did and that was good enough for me.

"Being a freak of nature is not awesome!" Matt yelled.

"Hey, nobody talks about Alex-kun like that in front of me and gets away with it," I growled.

"Yeah, what are you gonna do about it? Mom and Dad ain't here!"

That brat always thought I was a tattletale, as childish as it were. However, his argument also meant I could get away with things I couldn't back home.

"I know they're not here and that means, there's not gonna be anyone to run to when I kick your butt!"

And then I pounced on him.

(????)

There was the sound of a struggle coming from inside the house I was pinned against. I had my orders: "Stalk the inhabitants of this building and when the time comes, strike and bring all of them to me." So far, I had plenty of targets to take in and they were either strong, fast, smart or some combination of the three.

BANG!

Oh! That had to hurt.

I peeked into the window I was hiding under and saw the hedgehog-girl fighting the armadillo-boy. The girl was using her nails (that tore through her gloves) to hold onto him while he was kicking her in the stomach.

"Matthew, thou art a villain!" the girl yelled.

"Don't pull that Shakespeare crap!" the armadillo, Matthew, yelled.

"Then perhaps you'd prefer if I pulled this!" the girl bit his arm, jumped off, opened one of the cupboards and took out a frying pan.

"What are you gonna do with that?' he asked.

"This!"

She threw the frying pan.

Matthew dodged it and it was headed… OH CRAP!

BANG!

The goddamn window just had to be open.

I fell over backwards and held my face as the frying pan continued on its way through the woods.

"Damn it, I'm lucky that didn't break my fucking nose!" I hissed as I tried to keep quiet.

"Oooh! That had to hurt!" came from inside.

I peeked inside to see the armadillo on the ground, his hands covering where the sun don't shine and the girl standing over him.

"I didn't know you took cheap shots," the human said in a British accent.

"Of course I do, it makes things more fun," she answered as she adjusted her glove.

"You're evil," came from both foxes in obvious fright.

"You just now figured that out?"

I ducked under the window, checked my glove for blood and sure enough I has a nosebleed. I groaned and looked back in the window. The girl was now climbing the stairs that lead out of the kitchen, with the human and small fox behind her. The bat and larger fox was looming over the downed armadillo, that girl must have had one hell of a kick/punch.

"You're lucky I didn't hit harder, otherwise you might have lost the family jewels," the girl called.

The armadillo began whimpering.

"If you're smart you'll stay there and outta my way for the next several hours," the girl said as she leaned over the railing.

"Take her word for it, she can be merciless," the human said with a wave of his arm.

"How do you know that?" the small fox asked.

"I've seen her do it for myself, let's just say it's ugly when she uses everything she has."

"He's speaking from experience," the girl said with an evil chuckle.

The fox stopped dead in his tracks.

"You don't wanna know what happened," the human said.

"But I never said-"

'But you were thinking it, Levi," the girl said, "Alex reads minds."

Oh. Now I know why the Iron Queen gave me the medallion that was hanging around my neck.

"Yeah, and your sister is too smart for something like that!" the human, Alex, yelled at the armadillo who yelped in fright.

_Times to leave, I thought,_ as quietly as possible.

As I left to find a tree to spy from I failed to notice I left something very important at the window.

(Alex)

"So how did you meet this guy exactly?" Levi asked Shelby as he trailed behind her.

"On the internet, but we met in real life the last time I was here, he saved me from some SHADOWbots," Shelby answered.

'But isn't he from our world?" Levi asked.

"Yes but like I said, he has a ton of powers, more than six-hundred actually."

Levi's jaw dropped.

"Yeah, it shocked me too. But you get used to it."

"How?'

"I don't know, you just do."

"Uh, right…"

_**My god, what the hell have I gotten myself into?**_

"Insanity at its greatest level," I told him.

"…DON'T READ MY MIND!"

"You'll get used to yelling at him for that," Shelby said, "At least I have."

_**He'll get used to it Alex-kun, don't worry.**_

"Don't worry, I already know," I told her.

"…You know, one day someone's gonna read you mind and you'll be as annoyed as I am right about now."

"Not likely, I do have powerful mental barriers."

"Yeah, yeah, just don't give me a reason to give you the evil glare."

I damn near froze at the threat. It was a face that was totally evil. She knew I didn't like that face. She only shot it when she was mad, upset or just wanted to bug me. Either way I hated that look.

"You wouldn't dare," I challenged.

She looked at me out of the corner of her eye and I saw it: the corner of her evil glare! I probably looked very disturbed. She then smirked and then began snickering as she slapped her hands over her mouth.

_Note to self: give Shelby hell later._

"I'm sorry Alex but your face is just…" She couldn't finish since she was laughing so hard.

"I hate you sometimes you know that," I growled.

"Of course I do, I've got enough stable gray matter to figure that out."

"I seriously doubt that."

"And I don't doubt you about anything."

"Yeah well-" I was cut off a particular scent.

"Alex? Something wrong?"

"I smell blood."

Before the two of them could reply, I turned and jumped back into the kitchen. I sniffed the air. The window!

I ran and stopped to see that there was a small pool of blood on the green paint that covered the wooden window.

"Alex, what in the world are you doing/" I heard Shelby say as she came up behind me.

I didn't answer but I dipped two of my fingers into the pool and sniffed. I didn't know who or what the blood came from.

"Is that… blood?" Levi asked.

"Yeah, Shelby, did you or Matt-"

"No, we never take our fights that far, a few scratches, bruises and bumps maybe but we never do it hard enough to draw blood, we we're even close to the window."

I leaned out the window and saw there was blood on the grass… Somebody was watching us, how the hell did I not pick upon the person's thoughts?

"Alex, what's going on?"

"Somebody was watching us," I nearly growled, "There's blood on the window."

Shelby ran next to me and saw what I was talking about.

"I threw the frying pan out the window, that explains why whoever it was is bleeding… but why were they at our window… unless they were a spy."

"The Iron Queen sent a spy?" Levi asked.

"Probably one of the ninjas from the Dragon Kingdom, she took over and all the clans but one are under her control, the only one that remains is the one led by Monkey Kahn, it's for those without a clan to call their home, they're the closest thing the Dragon Kingdom has to Freedom Fighters."

"So what, they're gone aren't they?" Matt groaned.

"Yeah but who knows how long they were watching…"

(Levi)

We were being spied on… Shelby had reason to worry, we all did. All Alex could tell from the blood was that it was that of a hedgehog's but that was it. It didn't belong to any hedgehog Alex knew he could tell what a person's blood smelled like through their skin, or least that's what Shelby said. After the discovery of the blood, Shelby had called for a meeting in the family room. With Alex's help, they closed all the blinds, locked every door and window and even had Calcifa somehow scan the surrounding area for listening devices.

When they were done and Shelby began the meeting the room was only lit by a single window that had no curtains, it loomed over our heads, in an almost creepy sort of way. Gray had been sent with a fake message to the city, incase we were still being watched. If he ran into trouble, Shelby told him to give the person the fake message and get away as fast as possible. After five minutes, she began the meeting.

Well, Matt and Alex kinda beat her to it.

"What are we so worried about? It's just a spy, we could probably kick his butt in a flash!" he yelled as he punched the air from where he sat on the couch.

"Matt, you idiot, we can't take risks like that!" the teenager snapped, "Not only are we being spied on, but Sonic is also missing and New Mobotropolis has a crazy killer on the loose!"

"Huh? Where'd you hear all that from?!"

"I read Shelby's mind, it's one of the fastest I know."

"Thank you Alex but can we get back to the matter at hand?" Shelby-chan asked, "You all already know about the blood discovered at the window, now, I wanna know if any of you saw anything at the window at the time, a bird, a squirrel, anything could be a spybot these days."

"I'll second that," Alex nodded, "I've seen enough to know anything is possible."

"After all this, I think we'd all agree to that," I said, "I mean, we're al in the same boat here."

"Yeah well one of us has a life vest who can come and go as they please," Matt was talking about Alex.

Shelby-chan shot him an angry glare but Matt didn't even budge.

"Idiot," came from Alex, who had probably read his mind, "She isn't scared of any of that, you'd have to do something really freaky."

"Like what?" Matt growled.

"Something worse than this."

With a sickening crack, Alex pulled off his head from the base of his neck, tossed it into the air and then threw it at Shelby, who caught it. I was either gonna be sick or pass out again.

(Shelby)

The boys screamed like little girls.

"Alex, quit goofing around, and save the gross stuff until _**AFTER**_ they're used to your powers!" I yelled before throwing his head back to his body like a baseball pitcher.

His arm shot up and caught his head.

"Alright, alright, it's just a bit of fun," he said as he placed his head back on where he had torn it off.

The others were either in the bathroom or in the kitchen puking up their guts. I was fine since I had seen him do that same trick several times before… although Matt had watched more horror movies than me, he shouldn't have had any problems with this… but seeing this stuff in real life was different than the movies… Except Jurassic Park, they were very close when they made the dinosaurs come to life in those movies. I should know, so does Alex. I somehow managed to talk him into taking us closer to the action... Do I really need to say more?

"Shelby-chan how do you manage to…" Levi let out a groan before he could finish.

"You get used to it, although being a tomboy does help," I answered.

"And spending two years with me does too," Alex added as he readjusted his head.

"That it does, listen Alex, do you think you can track whoever that was by there blood?"

"Can I eat my own arm?"

"That answers my question."

(????)

I puked into a bush after that guy pulled off his head and threw it around before reattaching it. Of all the unbelievable things I had seen, this topped them all. I didn't watch them for a full hour, that was when I stopped feeling sick. My binoculars had worked too well. I mean, for crying out loud, who can tear off their own head and survive?!

The sliding glass back door opened to show the hedgehog-girl walking out with the human behind her. The others followed her, but they looked very pale, they probably puked too. The human, who had his head back on, sniffed the air and pointed in the direction where I was… And then I noticed he had blood on his fingertips, my blood. I had left it behind because of my nosebleed and they were now using it to find me.

"That way," he began walking.

Damn it! I grabbed a tranquilizer gun a dart and began loading. I had to snipe them to get the drop on them I was told that these guys were good and the safest way to bring them in was to tranquilize and take them while they're out.

I took the gun and aimed for the first one I saw: the larger fox.

(Shelby)

"YEEEOOOOOWWWWW!"

Nick's scream nearly made me jump out of my fur and with his power of randomness, I really could have jumped and left every strand of fur behind… STOP LAUGHING!

We turned to see Nick landing on the ground, probably from jumping ten plus feet into the air. He landed on his face.

"What's wrong Pozega, get stung by a bee?" Matt laughed.

"Matt, Nick's scared of bees, he's never been stung and he's scared he might be allergic to them so he avoids them at all cost," I said, remembering all those years on the playground with him.

Alex sniffed the air and froze.

"Hmmmmm."

"Alex? What's wrong?" I asked, knowing that look was the on he got when was thinking.

"Hm, I wonder," Alex walked over to Nick and began checking him, and stopped between his tails, "Found it, tranquilizer."

"Tranquilizer? Didn't know Nick had a thing for needles," Matt snickered.

"Uh he doesn't, another fear he has: the fear of needles," I said.

"Then why would-"

Alex was cut off when he flinched and pulled something out of the back of his neck and even from a distance you could see droplets of purple liquid in the dart.

"Aw shit! We're being aughhhhh…."

Alex passed out, probably from his internal organs turning into a milkshake. In the back of my head, I remembered a magic potion I once read about that does just that. Combine that with Alex's poor tolerance to magic equals something very bad.

"We're being what exactly?' Levi asked, sounding very scared.

I swallowed before saying,

"I think we're being hunted."

My sharp ears caught the sound of something flying through the air. I jumped just as three darts hit the ground where I had been standing.

"SCATTER!" I yelled.

Levi ran for it while Matt curled into a ball, obviously hoping that his shell would protect him. I landed on the ground next to Alex and allowed a certain plant to slither up my arm to safety before jumping into a cluster of tree branches. That was when I saw someone drop out of another tree and kicked Matt good and hard. He flew around, hitting trees and bouncing around, like a pinball… and one of the things he hit, was poor Levi. He hit him from behind and sent Levi flying into a tree, he was uncurious at once.

While Matt scored three hundred points by bouncing between the elm and red pine I went to check on Levi. He was on the ground with a face that can only be described as this: _

He was out cold.

Eve began tapping me with her roots and vines like making her strange gurgling sound and pointed with a leaf. I looked where she was pointing to see Matt coming to a stop in front of whoever it was that kicked him and knocked the others out. He managed to get Matt out of a ball and then… proceeded to beat him to a pulp.

A line was crossed.

Nobody beats up my brother but me, Nick too, he was MY punching bag and NOBODY hurt Alex or Levi when I'm around.

This guy was going down!

"Hey ugly! Ya missed one!" I yelled before jumping into the trees.

(????)

The girl was brave I'll give her that. Showing herself like that out of the blue, not most people could do that. I followed her up into the tree branches and began hunting for her. She wasn't very fast, but she was agile. She weaved through the tree branches like they were nothing. She had a slight advantage because of her smaller body I couldn't follow her exact path and had to find other ways to catch up to her.

At one point she dropped out of a tree and seemed to disappear.

I searched the area, growing more frustrated by the minute. How the hell could somebody just disappear? Before I could get that answered, someone, or rather something grabbed my ankle and pulled. I fell over from the shock and then felt something heavy run right across my body. I looked up to see the girl with what looked like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors riding on her shoulder. I looked to my ankles and saw heavy roots wrapping around them. I began tearing them away but it was taking too much time, I still had to get that brat.

(Shelby)

I gave Eve a high-five the little plant was a miracle worker sometimes.

She was Alex's pet plant, and could manipulate plants hence the tree roots grabbing our attacker. She didn't exactly take kindly to somebody hurting her master.

"Now let's get the others out of here," I said as we headed back towards them.

Eve used one of her vines and placed it close to her head, as if looking out… but it made no sense considering Eve doesn't have any eyes.

"Quit foolin' around Eve," I groaned as I skid to a halt on my knees to Levi's side, "Levi, Levi wake up!"

Eve got off me and went to check on Alex by nipping at his hand. He didn't even move, until the potion was removed from his system, he'd stay that way. I knew the potion to make him well again but none of the ingredients I could be found in a North American forest, they grew in snowy mountain terrains, and the nearest mountain didn't even go high enough to have snow. I had them back at the base but I didn't dare go there while we were being hunted. I heard a series of clicks and saw Eve, jumping up and down before sticking her roots into the ground and I knew what she meant. I just had to choose the right plant... and suddenly I had it.

"Eve, make a stinging nettle bush," I urged.

Eve made a makeshift thumbs up with her leaf and a bush began growing around Alex.

"Hurry Eve I don't know how long we've got." I whispered.

The bush formed over Alex, hiding him. The stinging nettles wouldn't protect him from everything but it would keep anybody unprotected from getting close… at least for a while.

"Okay, now make a bush over the others, I'm losing any of' em."

Eve nodded and bushes began growing around the others. The hunter wasn't gonna get them without getting the leafs in his face and eyes. And stinging nettles HURT! They were also a little sticky so it's not exactly easy to get rid of them.

"Now, what to do about our little "problem"," I whispered to myself.

Something in the underbrush moved before I had time to come up with an answer. Deciding I didn't wanna wait and find out what it was, I climbed into the nettle bush hiding Levi and hid as best as I could.

Through the branches and leafs I could see someone coming out of the bushes, swearing like a sailor. He was a hedgehog with the same wild head quills that Manic has but his fur was yellow and tipped with light blue highlights. His spines has had the same tips, even the one on his back, two of his head spines were arched up like Shadow's while the others fell like Sonic's. He had a white tuff of fur on his chest with the same highlights. He was wearing white gloves, black camo' pants, black steel-toed boots… and a gold locket?

It's true, hanging around his neck was a golden circle locket although the tranquilizer gun in his hands was becoming the focus of my attention. The hedgehog looked real mad and was throwing the last of the tree roots that had trapped his ankles over his shoulder. His dark blue eyes read "I'm pissed and I'm gonna kill ya if I find ya" so I decided to stay put.

"I know you're here ya little brat!" he yelled, "And when I find ya, you're dead!'

I glared around the area, trying to decide if there was anything I could use for a magic spell I could use against this guy. There was nothing real close, the best I could do was make him very itchy. I needed more powerful herbs to do any real damage from a distance, I could use actual attack spells but I wasn't gonna do it with Levi so dangerously close to me.

"Come out, come out," the hedgehog growled as he looked through the scope of the tranquilizer.

I stayed put, not daring to move. Or at least I wanted to, a muscle spasm made my leg hit a large branch, 'causing it to shake and make noise.

"AHA!"

Suddenly I was staring into the barrel of a tranquilizer, the eyes of the owner peering just over the top and through the scope. I ducked fast, feeling a tranquilizer dart flying over me, skimming my fur and skin at some points. I made the next move, crouched and threw myself into the hedgehog's stomach before he could fire another dart. He buckled over but remained standing with the gun remaining in his hand. I grabbed it by the barrel and the butt and began wrestling him for the weapon. He may have only had one hand on it but he had a good grip, it only became stronger when he placed his other hand on it and began pulling.

He was much stronger than I was, I had no chance of pulling it away from him but it didn't mean I couldn't make it more difficult. I was one of those few people who could hold onto something and could be a real pain to pry off. As long as I kept the barrel pointing away from me, I'd be fine and could buy some time… But he wasn't going to let that happen.

He managed to get his leg behind mine, used his foot as a hook and pulled my leg out from under me. I fell over backwards and winced in pain before realizing the gun was pointed at me.

"Say good night brat," he growled.

I tried to rollaway but I felt a dart hit my shoulder and instantly began feeling its effects. I struggled to stay awake but could quickly feel myself falling asleep. I was on my stomach and felt him place his boot on my shoulder and press down. I winced slightly before forcing out,

"Who are you?"

"Heh," he replied, "The name's Jose the Hedgehog."


	7. Light in the Dark

I'm still alive! YAY!

**Chapter seven: Light in the Dark**

The first thing I knew after I heard Jose's name was that I was in a cold, dark, metal room, surrounded by a yellowish-green egg-shaped barrier. I sat up and looked around, Levi, Matt and Nick were already standing and looking around. I knew the barrier, I had been in similar ones in the past and knew what would happen if you touched it. Nick found out a moment after I figured out where I was. He poked the barrier, jumped into the air, still touching the barrier, began flashing and at some points, turned into a living X-ray, showing every bone in his body.

When he finally dropped, he had small wisps of smoke coming off him and static ran along his fur. Levi and Matt wisely stepped away from the barrier but it was very small so there wasn't anywhere to really go.

Then I realized something was very wrong.

"Where's Alex?" I asked.

They only looked at me and donned looks of confusion and then worry.

"He's not in here," Levi answered.

I stood on wobbly legs, still weak from the tranquilizer. I looked all around and at the far end of the room was a floating orb of energy and inside, still unconscious was Alex, he was sitting up with his wrists bound by more energy.

"Alex!" I yelled and ran towards him.

I hit the barrier headfirst and it zapped me good and hard and threw me back to the center of the egg-shaped barrier.

"Damn it that hurt," I growled as I rubbed the back of my head.

"Or course it does."

We all snapped to attention to see the Iron King, Queen and Snivley standing in the doorway, the Iron Queen was the one who spoke. They entered and following them was the hedgehog who had attacked us. I felt my fur standing on end.

"Well done Jose, you caught us the vermin we asked for," the Iron Queen said as she looked at us.

Jose didn't answer he just crossed his arms over his chest.

"What do you want?' I hissed.

"Oh, so you speak now? Last time I checked, you didn't talk much," the queen sneered.

"Shut up. What the fuck do you want with us lady?" I growled as I stood up.

"It's not you I want, it's him," she nodded to Alex, "You see he is-"

"Unique and gives off strange and powerful energies and you wanna know how he can do what he does, I've heard 'em all before lady!" I yelled.

"Uhhhhh… you've heard this before sis?" Matt asked.

"Oh, hasn't she told you? She's been to this world before," her voice was as sweet as anti-freeze.

"This one and many others," Snivley sneered this time.

I could feel three pairs of eyes staring at me and much to my surprise a fourth was added when Jose looked at me.

"All thanks to him," the bitch pointed at Alex, "Tell me dear, do you know how many powers he has?"

"Over six-hundred, you lose track after that," I answer with a smirk. So what if the others found out, I knew Alex could handle everything, except magic.

"Now, how is his… healing capabilities?"'

"He can regenerate immediately, he can't be killed."

"Then what would happen if I do something… violent?"

My fur stood out further.

"Don't you dare hurt him!" I yelled.

He had already been to Hell and back enough times as far as torture went and trust me, anyone who tried to hurt him was going to instantly be on my personal hit list.

The queen simply sneered and opened a open in the orb Alex was in. She grabbed him by the throat and began squeezing. That wouldn't kill him, far from it. I started to calm down when she sank her long nails into his throat and tore out a good-sized chunk of flesh. I heard Nick and Levi groaning, probably struggling to keep their breakfasts in their stomachs.

The Iron Queen dropped the chunk of flesh on the ground and Alex's throat began healing at once. It wasn't a serious wound, I had seen him take much worse in the past but it still made me tense. It got worse when she thrust her fist into his stomach. His body must have been weakened a great deal from the potion. I knew that was a difficult task when he was healthy. I didn't need to know what she would do next to take action.

"**SOUL CUTTER!"**

A bolt of energy formed in my hand and I used it to cut a hole in the barrier. I jumped through the hole before it closed and threw the energy at the Iron Queen. She dodged, pulling her hand out of Alex's stomach. I ran and tackled her to the ground. Nobody hurt my friend and got away with it, especially when they hired somebody to hunt us down like game. I knew this was the same rage Alex would feel if I were the one in the orb. I felt the huge hands of the Iron King grabbed my arms, which were as wide as my arms were long, or something close to it. He pulled me off his wife easily since he was bigger than most humans and overlanders so I had no chance against his hold.

"Lemme go ya over grown rodeo bull!" I yelled as I thrashed in his arms.

"Hm, so you don't like your friend being hurt," the Iron Queen cooed, "You know, you've caused me a lot of trouble in the past few weeks, destroying factories and all so why don't I return the favor?"

I felt my rage slip away and turn to concern. I didn't dare look at those in the barrier, not wanting the Iron Queen to see my concern.

"I've always wanted to personally see how biological bodies work and I have five subjects to work with," was hissed.

"DON'T YOU DARE!" I yelled.

"Oh I dare, and just for my amusement, I'll save you for last and have you watch the dissection of your friends."

"NO! DON'T YOU DARE, IF YOU'RE GONNA DO ANYTHING TO ANYONE, YOU'RE GONNA DO IT TO ME! I'M THE ONE WHO DESTROYED THOSE FACTORIES, PUNISH ME!"

"But I am, watching your friends scream in pain while you're unable to do anything will hurt you more than just being cut open and poked at."

I heard the evil trio laughing as I struggled in the Iron King's grip, it was like trying to break a rock with your own two hands, near impossible.

"Take them away!" the queen ordered at two spider ninjas, who bowed and punched a code into a pad on the wall.

The floor tiles under the barrier lifted up and began floating towards the door.

"They'll be held together, you and Alex will be held in 'special' cells made especially for you," it was Snivley who spoke this time.

I struggled against the king's hold while the spider ninjas moved the barrier by pushing and moving the floor panels. In the barrier, the boys were charging and hitting the barrier, desperately trying to break it. Even Matt's newly found, abnormal strength was failing to break the floor tiles, possibly the only way of escape. Nick reached into his hammerspace and found a velvet circle. He tried to put it on the barrier but was zapped again and when he put it on the floor, one of the ninjas held a shuriken under the hole or put it in. His Portable Hole had failed for the first time.

As they were being pushed out of the room, I began screaming profanities, that's all I'm certain of everything else is a blur. The others were screaming for release but they may as well have been mimes they weren't getting out. When they were out of sight, I had tears in my eyes I was scared what would happen to them.

"As for Alex, I'll be keeping a personal eye on him," the queen sneered, "As for you, I have something special planned."

I looked at her, no longer bothering to hide my terror. I was scared for my friends more than I was myself and she knew it.

"Deal with her darling," the queen ordered and the king began walking… straight to the hole where the floor tiles had been.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"That's the fastest way to your cell," came from the king in a gravely voice.

"WAIT!" I yelled when I was dropped into the hole and swallowed by total darkness.

(Jose)

New tiles, ones that moved on their own, sealed the queen laughed as the hole. She was enjoying the pain that girl was going through. That girl, what was her name again, She-bee(?), she had put up quite a fight in the forest. She was also obviously upset about what was going to happen to her friends. She put up as much of a fight as she could, which wasn't much since the Iron King was a huge bull-like thing and could be compared to someone using steroids every day of their life, minus the health problems. He was actually unnerving to look at even for me but for someone like her, smaller and weaker, he was probably very terrifying. The fact that she struggled showed that she had strong emotions and could be blinded by them when she was upset.

"So do I get paid now?" I asked the short overlander/human (I still don't know how to tell the difference).

"Yes, I'll get the check ready, you've done us a great service," he answered in his nasally British accent, which was a little annoying, "That little brat has 'cause all sorts of problems for us."

"Which brat?"

They were all younger than me except the larger of the two foxes but he acted like a kid so at the time, I considered them all brats.

"The girl, she may not look like much but she can be quite a pain. She's destroyed plenty of factories on her own."

"How?"

"She's a sorceress, she casts spells and uses other abilities to weaken our power, it's nearly enough for me to tear my remaining hair out."

I raised my brow. He only had six hairs that stood on end so I'd guess t wouldn't take much stress to lose them.

"If you want a little extra Jose, you can guard the girl and make sure she doesn't escape from her cell, that girl is very resourceful," the queen said.

"In a cell with three metal walls and one made of Plexiglas I doubt she'll be able to escape," I said, remembering the tour they gave me of the cells they were using to hold them.

"Yes but just as precaution, that brat has been known to get screws out of their holes with only her thumbnail."

I raised my brow that really sounded resourceful.

"Whatever you say I'll do it."

"You might want to take a pair of Eggpawns with you, she is the wild card in the deck."

"I see."

Two Eggpawns walked to my sides.

"Follow them, they'll take you to the cell," Snively said.

I gave Snively one last look before following the two 'bots out of the room and into the hall. As we went, I heard screams and down another hall, I saw the bigger 'bots carrying the others, except the human, he was still with the Iron Queen. They were throwing fits, yelling and screaming to be let go. I saw them for barely three seconds before they were taken down the hall and gone around the corner. I was starting to think I had made a mistake to take the job of hunting these guys down.

We went down several flights of stairs before we reached the holding area. There was only one cell that had a prisoner in it, the one girl. Before we even reached that specific cell that had a special room built just for it, I heard an extremely loud, almost animalist screeching and roaring and something pounding on the walls. I only needed one guess as to what it was. There was a steel door and the noise was coming from the other side.

"I can take it from here," I told the two bots before stepping onto the sensor pad, causing the door to open.

When the door opened, a huge thing with blue skin, big eyes, purple lips, buckteeth and a big red tongue was waiting on the other side. I let out a scream at the cartoonish thing. It quickly pulled back, through a glass wall and into a small blue box that was in the hands of the hedgehog girl.

"I can't believe that worked," she said, "somebody actually screaming at a prank spell, talk about pathetic."

I was suddenly very pissed. She had the nerve to call me pathetic! I'd show her pathetic when I talked the Iron Queen into letting me fight her in the arena.

"You are a real pest you know that," I growled.

"This form isn't a pest," she smirked, "this one is!"

She began to shrink and transform. It had to be another one of her spells. She shrank so much that her clothes literally fell off her shoulders and in her place was an orange cat with black paws, a black stripe going down her back and a white chest, with a blue collar around her neck and a lightning bolt pendent where most cat collars have bells. The most noticeable feature was a tuff of fur on the crown of her head that fell down into her eyes and curled upwards. She had blue eyes, a small pink nose and a wild look.

"Surprised?' the cat asked.

"Not really," I lied.

"Well this will," she said, sounding insane.

From her sides came another pair of legs, and then I realized her front paws, along with the ones that had just sprouted, were almost like hands. She grew a pair of white antenna, a second tail and a pair of black angel wings. The transformation was stunning but it didn't prepare me for what she did next.

She jumped and curled into a tight ball and literally transformed into an orange ball with a black stripe, wings and a tail. The ball bounced a few times on the floor before coming towards the glass wall, bounced off it, flapped her wings, gained speed, bounced off the back wall, flapped her wings again, gained ever more speed and this continue for quite some time. She was also now laughing that sounded like a combination of a maniac's laugh and a witch's laugh. After bouncing for a full minute she was headed for the glass wall, came out of the ball and face planted the wall with the right side of her with her tongue out, looking very insane. She almost looked like something out of Lilo & Stitch.

"Freaked out yet?" she asked.

"Yes, very much now," I answered.

"Victory number one, victory number two: let me out."

"No."

"You mean yes."

"No way."

"Yes way."

"Uh uh."

She started looking very mad. She got off the wall, walked to her clothes, slipped into them and transformed back into a hedgehog, growing right back into her clothes. It was something right out of a movie. She looked up at me and her eyes were now red.

"You put me and buds here and ah'm still pissed, now, either you let me out and I don't beat you up or I break myself out and turn you into a corpse."

"No."

Big mistake.

She jumped at the glass wall and began pounding on it. She had returned to growling and screeching like some wild animal. After pounding on the glass, she went to the metal walls, which were beginning to dent. I could have sworn it was a female lion that was trying to get out of a cage cause her cub was in danger, sure sounded like one. Her eyes now glowing amber green, the same color as the human's eyes. For the next hour I watched as she pounded on the walls, floor and ceiling, trying to escape. The metal walls dented but the glass one stayed strong. It didn't crack.

(Levi)

Nick and Matt weren't speaking to me. They didn't even want to look at me. I had just told them what Shelby-chan had told me, about being to Mobius before. They were obviously mad at me but probably even more so at Shelby. They had known her much longer than I had and she trusted me with that important secret and not them. They were probably taking some of their frustration to Shelby out on me.

"Guys, Shelby-chan didn't think you'd believe her," I tried to explain.

They didn't even move and now I was getting frustrated. I stood up in my cell and grabbed the bars to the cell door. My hands felt strangely hot.

"Would you guys answer me already?!" I yelled. "Shelby-chan didn't want you guys to know because she didn't think you'd believe her! Wouldn't you feel the same if you…"

I trailed off when I noticed there was steam coming from my hands. The bars were glowing a bright red but my hands didn't hurt. Looking from the floor to the ceiling I saw that both bars I grabbed, which were right next to each other, were bright red. I blinked several times before slowly moving away. The bars remained red hot.

"How'd you do that?' I heard Matt ask.

"I don't know," I answered, completely taken aback.

"Didn't you hands hurt?" Nick asked.

"No, they didn't," I said in a hushed voice.

"Grab 'em again!" Matt suggested.

I don't know why I listened, but I did. It was like something possessed me to do it. I grabbed the bars, not the least bit affected by the heat.

"Now bend 'em!" Matt cheered again.

I looked at him like he was crazy but I could see that behind his would-be teenage eyes were those of a scared kid. Matt was only thirteen, not even a teenager for a year he was still mostly a kid. I took a deep breath and began telling myself he was still just a kid that needed to be helped.

I began pulling the bars apart. I had tried earlier and found that it was impossible but now they were moving with a small amount of strength. I finally managed to pull them as far as they would go and found the hole to be about a foot and a half wide. To a human that would be a near impossible squeeze, to a mobian it would be easier but for me, extremely easy. I was extremely flexible and could maneuver my body with ease so the small hole was an easy escape. I waited until the bars cooled off, which took nearly an hour. My hand might not have felt the heat but the rest of me did. Once the bars went from red-hot to just plain warm, I began to squirm my way through and finally got my body to the other side of the bars.

"Nice Levi!" Matt yelled, "Now do the same to our so we can get outta here!"

I ran to their cell and placed my hand on the bars.

Nothing happened.

A minute passed.

Still nothing happened.

"I don't get it," Matt said.

"How'd you get the bars in your cell to get hot and moveable while ours aren't?" Matt asked.

"I dunno," I answered as I took my hands from the bars and looked at them.

"Now what?' Nick asked.

"I'm gonna go find Shelby-chan so she can help me get you guys out," I said suddenly.

"Why her?" Matt groaned.

"Haven't you ever seen your sister in action?" I asked.

"No."

Oh. There's my answer.

"Look, I'm gonna find her and when I do, we're getting you outta here."

"Just hurry, I don't think I can wait for long," Nick whimpered.

"I'll be back, I promise," I told them before heading to the door that we had been led through, "I hope."

(Jose)

"Are you done yet?"

She came up to the front of the cage tackling it with full force she hit it hard as her eyes return to normal color she started to cuddle up on the floor. I…couldn't help but to feel some sort of resource for her, it was sad, she must really care a lot for the others. She looked up at me and let out a scream filled with anger and sorrow, she came up to the cage and tackled it with her head.

That's when I smelled it, blood. I looked down at her as she continue to give me the death look, as the blood dripped from her head past memories started to fill my mind. I saw everything that happened that day. I saw the blood drip from the man's stomach as he coughed up blood on me.

"KNOCK IT OFF YOU DUMBASS"

That remark seemed to piss her off, she came charging back up to the glass and hit it again with her head. I could have sworn that I heard a cracking sound, I don't know if it was the glass or her head. The hedgehog girl back away staggering a bit but shook it off.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS"

I flinched at her remark.

"WHY ARE YOU WORKING FOR THE IRON QUEEN, WHY DO YOU LOVE TO MAKE PEOPLE SUFFER, YOU…YOU…YOU…HEARTLESS MONSTER"

I my eyes snapped open as the spines on my back filled with chills, those words… heartless monster… At that moment I open the glass door by punching in the keys to the door. She came running up toward me at a break neck speed, as her fist came in contact with me fist my body started to fly back. I caught myself, slammed my foot on the ground catching my balance and grabbed her throat as she tried to attack again.

"DON'T YOU EVER CALL ME THAT"

I felt the hot tears roll down my face as the memories of all of my crimes started to flash in the back of my mind. I'm pretty sure that she was shocked but she still tried to struggle free. I threw her back in the cage and punch the codes in for the door, I walked over to the exit and looked back, the egg bots saw the tears in my eyes as I started looking forward.

"STUPID MACHINES"

I slammed my fist down on the robots chest and pulled a knife out from the side of my steel toe boot stabbing the other in the circuit board hidden in its left eye. As I headed on forward I heard them implode; I made a turn and headed to where my room was located. I through myself on the bed and looked at my palm. The day I was teleported here from Earth, that was the day I met a god named Asura, she was the guardian of the Sol Emeralds and said that my duty was to save this world.

"But…"

That's when I met the Iron queen; she said that she could erase my past if I helped her conquer this world. Ever since that day I became a mercenary I lost touch with Asura, and my powers.

"JOSE!"

I turned my head to the computer screen and saw the bald midget.

"What the hell do you want?"

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING SHELBY! I ALREADY TOLD YOU THAT SHE'S BEEN GIVING US PROBLEMS SINCE DAY ONE, WE NEED TO WATCH HER AT ALL TIMES!"

"Why don't you blow me?"

"WHAT DID YOU TELL ME"

I sat up and looked at the computer scream, I remembered hearing something about experiments. I remembered all of the pleas for help, I remember her face…that girl…and her friends… No matter what they seem that they will kill to make sure that they're safe.

"JOSE ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?!"

I jumped off of the bed and walked over to the screen

"I'm glad you see…"

"I told you to blow me midget!"

I slammed my palm on the computer monitor and walked out of my room. I headed down Block C where they kept the other prisoners. As I took a step I heard a cry for help, I ran toward the scream and notice that the smaller fox was being carried off by Eggbots

"Hey machines!"

They turned around and got a boot to the face, while I floated in the air for a mid second I tapped my boot causing a hidden knife to retract from the heel in which I used to slash at the robot. As the Eggbots fell to their defeat the fox fell on top of the rubbish and looked at me.

"Please…don't hurt me…"

I walked over to him and grabbed him by the throat, slammed him against the wall and held up my fist.

"I'm only going to say this once: how did you escape the prison cell?"

The fox looked at me confused, he was gasping for air. I lifted him up and kicked him in the gut. As he was sent flying back I threw a knife at him, I heard him yelp as it cut his arm and crashed into camera that was watching our every move.

"Hey furball get up. "

The fox looked at me scared and confused, I walked over to him and lifted him up by his hand.

"Take this and get the others out of here."

I handed him a card to the other prison cells.

"Also take this."

I handed him a small box that had a red switch.

"What is this supposed to do?"

"It will disable the Eggbots NOW GO!" I snapped as I dropped him.

He looked at what I had shoved into his hands before looking at me.

"Why are you helping us now?"

"I SAID GO!"

As the fox ran off toward the other cells and I ran off toward the girls cell. All of my memories started to flash back, all of the troubles back on earth, all of the misery I caused on this God forsaken planet, and all of the homes I destroyed.

"NO MORE!" I screamed out loud.

I ran faster to the cell, the Eggbots still had no clue that I switched sides so they didn't bother to stop me. After five minutes of running I finally made it to the cellblock where the girl was located.

"Eggbots move aside I got this under control"

They obeyed my command and left the station. I walked slowly to her cell and leaned against the wall and closed my eyes; shocked cause I thought I was going to see a half-crazed hedgehog trying to break down the door. Instead she was sitting on the floor, with her forehead on her knees and her arms wrapped around them. I stood there for a good five minutes before I got restless; I walked over to the walkie-talkie and pressed the button.

"You ok in there?"

No reply.

"Hey are you ok in there?"

Still no reply

"FUCK IT WHY THE HELL DO I BOTHER"

Before I turned off the walkie-talkie I heard her speak.

"Why do you care?"

"Well cause you've been quiet and from earlier before you were half raged"

I could feel that her tone was cold and emotionless; she was probably having her life flashed before her eyes, seeing all of the good and bad moments as well as seeing her friends.

"You're not from around here are you?"

My eyes open in a flash and my heart started to beat fast.

"…"

"I'm asking you a question, you're not from around here are you?"

"Huh?"

"Don't play stupid with me, it's a enough that I get it from my brother."

"Heh."

"But…you're not from here…you're from…Earth aren't you, at first I couldn't really tell cause I haven't been near you for long enough, but after I attacked, I notice the scent, it was weak but it was still their…you must have been on Mobius for quite some time."

"But how do you know…"

"'Cause Me, Matt, Nick, Levi, and Alex are all from Earth."

I stopped leaning against the wall and looked at her through the glass wall, she looked weak, sad, confused. I regretted looking at her, the memories flashed instantly, I couldn't take it, not all of the pain and misery I caused to everyone.

"ARRRRRRRRGHH"

She looked at me confused and scared; I slammed my fist against the control panel causing the door to open. I turned away and looked down at the ground.

"Why…are you letting me go?"

I didn't respond, I heard her walk up to me and grab my arm still confused.

"Is this some kind of justice to make you pay for all of you done?"

I looked at her and paused for a minute.

"Ever since I was teleported here I consider myself a solider, I need to find a country to fight for, or a belief, the Iron queen made me a bet I couldn't refused but…looking at the moments…and all of the pain… I caused…this is my justice…and I heard this from someone… The meaning of justice can change from one day to the next. A professional soldier never brings justice into the mission."

She gave me a look of confusion.

"Look I my not be able to repay for all of the wrong deeds by doing this one justice but I got my reasons to change sides today. Now take this, your friends are already out and have escaped, find them hidden in block C and take them to Block A."

I turned around once again and didn't face her.

"The antidote for that potion you used on Alex… Thanks."

I heard her running out of the door; she then came running back and embraced me in a hug.

"Look… I'm sorry for what I called you earlier... you're not a heartless monster…join the freedom fighters, we need someone like you."

I smirked at her request.

"I'll think bout it, but right now I got a mission that needs to be done now. Go ahead without me."

She ran back out leaving me all alone in the room. I started to think. Was this the right choice, was this the right thing to do…will this really bring me justice and satisfy my want for repentance? ...Yes…it is…this is what I need to do…no this is what I have to do, I was brought back to live to help save this world.

I reached out of my pocket and pulled out a black emerald, I looked at it and gasped it hard, using my left hand I reached out for my locket

"Mom…Dad…I'm sorry…but now…NOW IT'S MY TIME TO FIGHT FOR WHAT'S RIGHT, IM SORRY FOR LETTING YOU DOWN"

At that moment the black rectangular emerald started to glow a bright green color, my fist started to glow a light blue color until it exploded with a dark blue aura.

"ALRIGHT IRON BITCH, TIME TO PAY UP WHAT YOU OWE! I'M GOING TO KICK YOU ASS TODAY, AND PAY FOR WHAT I HAVE DONE! GET READY 'CAUSE HERE I COME!"

I ran out the door, as I did I heard the alarms go off and my path surrounded by Eggbots.

"HEH THAT'S ALL IRON BITCH? WELL I GOT BAD NEWS FOR YOU: IT'S GOING TO TAKE A WHOLE LOT MORE THEN THAT TO STOP ME! …… SOL BURST!!!"

My spines glowed a bright blue color, I jumped in a ball spinning at an incredible speed, my spikes looked more like a rotating saw blade as I span faster and headed for the Eggbots.

"TOUGH LUCK GUYS! I DON'T KNOW ANY HESITATION!"

**Credit goes to Auramaster724 for writing part of this chapter. Thanks again dude. R & R please.**


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